Chiming in at just what a fvck up the healthcare system is. FIL les was diagnosed with Leukemia 3 weeks ago. It is aggressive. The number of hoops roadblocks and BS so far is embarrassing. They told him he should start Rx ASAP but they needed to line up everything, do multiple prior auths, etc. Yesterday (3 weeks later than it should have been) he went to get his teaching for his PO chemo med. No one knew VVTF was going on. THe med wasn't approved, they wanted him to pay 2500$ copay for initial pill. He told them he didn't have it. Magically they applied for a grant. What should have been a 30 min appt lasted >3h while they worked their way thru obtaining the med that supposedly had already been approved.
They also told him he can't screen his calls because the contract out the calls for appts, meds, pharmacy etc and people call from all over the country, with no verified ID.
No one seems to be collaborating. He has diabetes was put on a med that makes it go wild and no one is monitoring. His new med has very serious cardiac effects and no one talked to his cardiologist- even tho he is less than 6 months out from a triple vessel bypass. I could go on.
And, sadly all the scary stuff I posted about- wellll- He took med for a few days, got GI sx, was severely dehydrated. Pretty sure this was a combo of the new meds and metformin. He called at the start of GI sx and no one thought to stop the metformin (severe side effects if dehydration). He called us with air hunger/unable to breathe. ER via ambulance. His systems crashed spectacularly -->vented, acute renal failure, severe arrhythmia, cardiogenic shock (no one knows how he managed to survive). Kidneys may not recover. The PCP called his house about 3 days into admission, while he was still in ICU, with a reminder to follow up from his admission,
over 3 weeks before. Merde.
The ICU was great. Since hitting floor..... well. Docs talk about their specialty but no one is actually talking about whole picture. Hospitalist talks about him at foot of bed, in a whisper to us because she knows he can't hear. He is fully cognizant. She needs another job if she thinks this is how you handle things. (the cardiologist is a great guy- he knows FIL les and eventually sussed out that things were subpar and stepped in)
Basic nursing (medicine) is lost. He refused meds because his mouth was so dry he wasn't able to swallow. The hospitalist called to say he was refusing meds and food, implying he was trying to passively die. No one thought to ask him
why he was refusing the meds- they assumed he was packing it in. He wasn't refusing dialysis or IV meds. If he was refusing stuff to end it, why would he agree to that? I asked him what was up and if he was refusing to end things or was he having trouble getting it down? The latter. He jumped on the suggestion he could take them lix or crushed. Yup and he did. I got them to take him off a diabetic diet with all the artificial sweeteners. He is 87 flipping yrs old. Has NEVER eaten diabetic diet. They are covering him with sliding scale insulin. It is not rocket science. He hasn't stopped eating since.
Way more than that but mother of pearl is the medical system sh1t. They set up the nurses and Providers to not be able to do a good job, separate the patient from their usual Providers and have no idea who the patient is. I really wonder what would have happened if I hadn't intervened.
