I don't want to cause a fuss, or cause trouble for my wife, but there seems to be a lack of proper quality care for my wife at my local hospital. She is a Medicare patient so I guess does not deserve much attention. What can I do? My wife has AL and I suspected a UTI so I took her to the ER. We got there about 10:00 AM and waited with a couple others until 2:00 PM when the staff got back from lunch. She was put in a bed and we waited. Many different people came in to inquire "what seems to be the problem?". Twice my wife needed to wee and so I took her to the bathroom and each time about 5 minutes later a young guy showed up with a container to get a wee sample. "Sorry she just went", so we need to wait another two hours. Third time lucky. By 7 PM, we had not eaten or been offered food all day and my wife was getting agitated because she was not given her regular dose of AL medication a 2 PM and 5 PM to stop her agitation like she gets at home each day. She got in a very bad mood. She had had enough and tried to get out of there and pushed a staff member so they called security. I told anyone who would listen that she needed her meds - not security. Anyway she was committed to the psych ward where she has been for two weeks. There are three nurses and four staff for five patients in the ward but she has fallen three times (other patients told me). She has big bruses on her bum. There is a white board in the ward to record falls - none recorded. I haven't said anything. Staff seem to constantly socialize together, watch TV or endlessly study their computers. The nurses only come out of their office to take vitals and give medications.
Warren, do you plan to bring her home from the hospital? If you do, then you may want to consider urgent care instead of the er in the future. Urgent care is a lot faster and can handle a UTI quite well. Triage at the er can take forever.
Do you have other hospital's in your area? If so, you can make sure she doesn't go into this hospital again. There is one good thing about this hospital -- they have a geri-psych ward. Many hospitals don't.
I don't blame falls on facilities, because a person can fall at home. Falls should be reported, though.
AND what is AL???
Contact the geriatric psyche ward "Patient's Rights Advocate"
immediately.
If other caregivers don't know your history with your wife, they will not be able to advise you. I have run across several of your posts throughout the forum, and apologize, I just cannot keep up, but knowing you are in a desperate situation, hoping that someone else can help.
Is your wife getting at all better? Are there any plans to discharge her?
As you posted before, "Where will she go after release from this current placement?
Are you ok, and eating?