What a waste! I was so frustrated as I left the hospital today. So often hospital resources are wasted. Just wasted. And it is incredibly frustrating.
One of my patients is a "frequent flier." And that alone generally doesn't bother me. But today all of it was frustrating. Today, my patient was ready to get out the door. "Okay for discharge" was written in the chart and then, with my purse on my shoulder, the dreaded buzz of the pager. (My pager has become such a part of me -loved and hated- that I seriously have phantom pages when I'm not wearing it. It's like people who loose limbs and have terrible phantom pains.) The voice on the other end crushed my soul as she informed me that my patient was now a wobbly mess seeing clocks and dogs that weren't there. "No longer safe to go," was the dagger at the end of the conversation. Crap. No, they weren't having a stroke, an aneurysm hadn't ruptured, and they weren't over medicated. All of which could be possibilities except that we all knew exactly what was happening. Alcohol withdrawal. I had failed to get them out of the hospital before their blood alcohol level bottomed out. Darn it. I tried so hard because I knew this was bound to happen.
Knowing that the patient wasn't interested in quitting, we now had three options: 1) let them go in the middle of withdrawal and hope that they get a drink before they seize; 2) write a "prescription" for beer in the hospital before they leave, and then send them on their way with a little buzz; or 3) keep them for a few more days, go through detox, then discharge them to drink 30 minutes or less after they walk out the door. The first option was bad from a legal standpoint. The second option was tough from a professional and moral standpoint. And the last option was difficult from a practical standpoint. See what I mean? Frustrating. We opted for the third, but it was with hesitation.
The patient's (I mean the government's, actually I mean our) bill will be in the thousands of dollars just so that we won't be legally responsible for the half an hour between them walking out the hospital doors and their next drink. Think of all of the man power that will be wasted between the nurses, techs, doctors, therapists, and support staff in the next few days. Not to mention the tangible stuff like IVs and medications.
Oh well. Big sigh.
One of my patients is a "frequent flier." And that alone generally doesn't bother me. But today all of it was frustrating. Today, my patient was ready to get out the door. "Okay for discharge" was written in the chart and then, with my purse on my shoulder, the dreaded buzz of the pager. (My pager has become such a part of me -loved and hated- that I seriously have phantom pages when I'm not wearing it. It's like people who loose limbs and have terrible phantom pains.) The voice on the other end crushed my soul as she informed me that my patient was now a wobbly mess seeing clocks and dogs that weren't there. "No longer safe to go," was the dagger at the end of the conversation. Crap. No, they weren't having a stroke, an aneurysm hadn't ruptured, and they weren't over medicated. All of which could be possibilities except that we all knew exactly what was happening. Alcohol withdrawal. I had failed to get them out of the hospital before their blood alcohol level bottomed out. Darn it. I tried so hard because I knew this was bound to happen.
Knowing that the patient wasn't interested in quitting, we now had three options: 1) let them go in the middle of withdrawal and hope that they get a drink before they seize; 2) write a "prescription" for beer in the hospital before they leave, and then send them on their way with a little buzz; or 3) keep them for a few more days, go through detox, then discharge them to drink 30 minutes or less after they walk out the door. The first option was bad from a legal standpoint. The second option was tough from a professional and moral standpoint. And the last option was difficult from a practical standpoint. See what I mean? Frustrating. We opted for the third, but it was with hesitation.
The patient's (I mean the government's, actually I mean our) bill will be in the thousands of dollars just so that we won't be legally responsible for the half an hour between them walking out the hospital doors and their next drink. Think of all of the man power that will be wasted between the nurses, techs, doctors, therapists, and support staff in the next few days. Not to mention the tangible stuff like IVs and medications.
Oh well. Big sigh.
ugh!
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