Hospital rant

[olivercat]

After possibly one of the worst experiences I have ever had with the Ontario health care system, I am pleased to say my DH has been rescued from hospital and has survived! One problem became many, after being dropped (shoulder, arm damaged), dislocated iv (hand swollen to the size of a melon), an attempted cat scan (bruised legs, and bumps), wrong diet --sugar spiked (to the point he needed emergency insulin), oh, and wrong meds (bad reaction). Add all of that to NO communication, I was only learning about this stuff from my DH, not from the staff! Ask someone what is going on --- oh, just standard stuff.... He was in ICU, what is standard stuff? Oh, and just to make to make it even worse, because my DH is a para, we had to show we had our own accessible transportation home! (Thank goodness, our van is still running). There is something seriously wrong with our health care system.
If you think this is just in one area of the province or country, think again.
If you have a loved one in hospital, make sure someone is with them to help at all times. Pay attention, I was caught off guard, like a deer caught I the headlights of an oncoming truck!
This is a list of hospital rating for Canada.
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/health/featu...alratings.html

[Angela273]

I'm sorry to hear about the bad hospital stay that you and your husband experienced. Believe me, I am certainly aware of the issues and have personally experienced it more than once. I survived SICU in 2007, where more things went wrong than the ones that went right. I'm still on injection blood-thinners with permanent damage to my leg and lung.

I used your link to check out the current rating of the hospital where I will be delivering my twins later this summer. The Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Sk, currently has a rating of "C." We have family in that city, so I don't anticipate being alone in the hospital very much. When I had our son there in 2012, some medical things were certainly mishandled, but we had learned from my bad experience at another hospital and were pro-active about my healthcare during that stay. Dh made sure that I was not left alone at any time while I was in the hospital, both before and after our son was born. LO never left my room and we are hoping to do the same with the twins. I am currently 32 1/2wks pregnant with the twins.

[harley]

I guess I will consider my family fortunate as we live in the only Ontario hospital area to receive an A+ rating. Even at that things do go wrong so I cannot even imagine what a C rating would be like for care.

[walkonby]

that does sound awful OP. Our local hospital has an A rating, feeling rather blessed all things considered.

[JasmineTea]

Sorry about your bad experience. It is terrible and scary how your DH was treated.

Some people unfortunately do not have family or friends with them at the hospital and your DH was lucky to have you there for your support.

[Shwa Girl]

OP, did you report these incidences to the hospital?
Did you report to the College of Physicians and Surgeons? College of Nurses? Ministry of Health?
Did you look at your DH hospital chart, to get the names of the hospital staff involved in these incidences?

[d.ot]

That's scary stuff...I have been hearing a lot more about hospital visits gone wrong. From a baby getting an invasive test that was completely unnecessary, a pregnant woman who's doctor made bad decisions resulting in an extremely long and difficult delivery, to a senior who went in for a simple procedure only to get an infection in another part of his body which has now affected his mobility (probably permanently given his age)...and this was all in the last 6mo! Makes you want to avoid hospitals altogether...better yet - have complete ownership of your health and the decisions you make. Doctors are people after all and mistakes happen all the time.

[olivercat]

OP, did you report these incidences to the hospital?
Did you report to the College of Physicians and Surgeons? College of Nurses? Ministry of Health?
Did you look at your DH hospital chart, to get the names of the hospital staff involved in these incidences?

We are still trying to get his hospital records. I was never allowed to see them. And, yes, we do plan to discuss the situation with the hospital. I have contacted the Spinal Cord Association, trying to find out what steps should have been taken. I do not want anyone 'getting in trouble', but it would like them to learn to deal with a paraplegic in a more dignified and respectable manner. I got tried of saying, no my DH is not on disability, and NO, he is not incompetent, just sleep deprived and over drugged! They would not give him a tv, because it cost extra and they did not think he could afford it! The safety issues are also something that needs to be addressed.
I will say that they have made me change my priorities. We have decided to cancel our mini vacation, cancel some much needed upgrades to our home and maybe even try setting up a fund raiser to help pay for a properly accessible vehicle. I could not believe that they did not want my DH to go home, and if our old van had still been the repair shop, he would have been transferred to 'long term' care. We live in a area without bussing, and (horribly) without any accessible taxis!
I am sure, in time, I will calm down, but right now, it scared me stupid how 'controlling' some staff members acted and how they thought 'they' knew better!

[Arvilish]

Sorry about your experience...due to shortage of staff, this has become so common though

[Tweets77]

God...Thunder Bay Health Sciences Center is only rated "C" but that is sort of what I expected.

[Momof3girlies]

Thank god you don't live in Quebec! Still on a 2-year waiting list for a doctor for our family and my husband has been sick with a cough for 4-years. Specialist after specialist, month long waits to see them...many hospital visits, me calling 911 because he couldn't breathe. If we had the money believe you me, We would move and straight into ONTARIO. Sorry your Hubby was treated that way.

[pippinelkhound]

I work in a hospital that has an "A" rating. Yet to hear people talk in my city, it's a hell hole.

A couple of things you all should know before piling on the hate.

Despite being the spouse or parent of an adult patient, legally staff cannot discuss the patient's status with you without their consent. Under the rules in my province, we can't admit they are on the unit.

TV rental is stupidly high. Oh, and has to be paid for when the rental outfit is there. No phone in or online payment in my hospital.

Meds, antibiotics and steriods, usually are the worst for causing blood glucose to spike.

If you are going to be there for your relative, don't be a PITA. Use the call bell, don't chase the nurse around. S/he has upto 5 others to care for. Doctors don't rsepond to pages quickly, it's not the nurses fault.

[bargain_hunter_lola]

I just spent 2 weeks in the hospital with my DD and thank goodness I was able to stay with her 24/7. I know not all people are able to for a variety of reasons.

Our hospital is rated C. There are serious holes in the system and YOU need to be on the ball.

I charted EVERYTHING myself in a little notebook. Input, output, antibiotic times, pain medicine times, temperature, Blood pressure, when the nurse was in, when the doctor was in, etc. I found I had to write it down because I was seriously sleep deprived and couldn't trust my memory.

Our hospital is a teaching hospital so obviously a lot of nursing students, which is totally fine except they don't always know what they are doing. There were numerous times where I had to ask the nursing student to do something because they forgot (temperature, bp, etc).

I left DD TWICE throughout the 2 weeks and it seemed like each time something went sideways. The first time a student nurse gave DD pain meds but I wasn't told about it. DH was there. When I got back (20 minutes later from grabbing some food), DH went home. About 2 hours later DD was complaining of pain so I asked for her pain meds. The nurse then asked me when her last meds were because she forgot to chart it. I checked in my notebook and told her the time, and she said she thought it was later than that... I called DH and sure enough he said DD got them when he was there. I knew what time I went for food so I knew the rough time they were given but I couldn't believe the student nurse FORGOT to chart when she gave MORPHINE to a SIX year old.

DD also got bumped A LOT because there aren't many anesthesiologists that work on children. She was bumped for 2 days when trying to get her PICC line in and then again for almost 2 days for an MRI (during which time they rushed her to the OR and kept her under the entire time). Traumas kept coming in so she was bumped for almost 4 days, during which she time she had to fast.

We had a few other minor issues, but more run of the mill things.

I was able to speak candidly to one of the doctors and the nursing teacher. They both said the same thing: Contact parliament. They are very over-worked, which means slower care and things fall through the cracks. As I said before thankfully I was there 24/7 with DD but not everyone is able to do that.

Even with the few blips we encountered we were lucky to have amazing doctors and nurses. They truly cared about DD and her health. We sent the floor a thank you card and a candy/gum/chocolate basket. They called to say thank you and that they don't get thank you's very often so it really means a lot.

[Ciel]

Hospitals have patient advocates-would recommend that anyone going into hospital find their contact information in advance just as a precaution.

Good on all the mentions of having someone around to either get healthcare staff or just to monitor family member's care/needs. You never know. Also, it's good to remind the medical staff that yes, they need to wash their hands between patients!

If anyone thinks they will be getting IVs/antibiotics during their stay, make sure to have someone bring you gut-healthy food so the medicine does not destroy your good bacteria (which helps your immune system function). Or expect to get sidelined by something unexpected.

OP, make sure that the Honourable Dr. Hoskins (ON Minister of Health) gets updated on this matter. I'd also suggest you scour the hospital site for policies on how they make the determinations about how patients leave (transport, either personal or transfer service). I'd have used social media to rally my network if hospital staff insist on specific exit policies. Imagine how hospital staff won't step outside a building door to help an ill person but then manage to play tyrant on discharge.

The late Toronto Star journalist Helen Henderson had some medical encounters where she was not treated well-she was in a wheelchair as well.

[ThisIsNyperson]

I feel your pain, trust me! Feel better!