Where is Michael Moore when you need him?
Before a patient dies at the hands of negligent nurses and doctors, a Government agency needs to investigate the slip-ups at California Hospital on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, and take immediate action - including disciplinary measures - to ensure the incompetence does not rise to charges of manslaughter.
Last night, for instance, patients languished in the halls for hours-on-end suffering severe pain and undue hardship before being attended to.
Those who were promised admittance were also forced to perch in crowded uncomfortable quarters – in some cases in filthy back rooms, tiny closets, and bizarre crawl spaces – before they were eventually transferred to a hospital room upstairs twelve or thirteen hours later.
In contrast, Hospital staff are quick to search down patients sprawled on the floor in pain here-and-there-and-everywhere about the hospital environs, to ensure they secure a copy of the patent's insurance carrier so that payments may be collected.
A definite lack of communication and shoddy professionalism added to the chaos.
For example, one nurse failed to give one patient crucial pain killer for a severe physical ailment, on the grounds that she was waiting for a doctor’s orders.
However, if the patient hadn't spoken up, the treatment would not have been forthcoming.
For good reason.
No one informed the doctor the patient was in pain, so the request for a prescription was never filled, for obvious reasons.
Food - when it arrived bedside - was usually cold, tasteless, and served up late in Styrofoams "take-out" wrappers!
The servers usually dragged their feet, tossed down the trays with little concern about the quality, and - more-often-than-not - gave the impression they would prefer to be sailing or some other such thing.
In the event there is ever an outbreak of food poisoning - or sudden unexplained infections among the patients - it would come as no surprise given the lackadaisical attitude of the Nurses in charge.
Meanwhile, on the 9th floor, patients were shocked to witness student nurses botch their attempts to place an IV in one patient’s arms – not once, but at least three times (totally obvious to the pain and discomfort they were inflicting on the patient).
And, when the instructor took her turn to show them how the task was professionally accomplished, she made a mess of it, too.
The patent's arms - not only ended up bruised - but also scarred once gaping open wounds finally healed.
Patients come to the hospital to be healed, not injured, God Willing.
Should a hospital allow a student nurse to practice on a patient with low platelets with a bleeding disorder?
If they think so, they need their heads examined.
And, their license to practice medicine at the California Hospital revoked, for sure!
An overhaul of the Health system is desperately needed, so I trust that the next goal of President Barack Obama will be to achieve that end in his next term as President (?).
Amen!
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