Someone Who Works In Dialysis-Vietnam Vet

[NDXUFan]

David,

Perhaps I misunderstood you. I'm a two tour of duty Vietnam Veteran, 12/69-12/71, so I sympathize with your situation, and your time in service to your nation.

The fact is that when patients and their families have no outlet for their anger, you're going to be reading the "venom" in their posts. Trust me, after 37 years in this business and seeing how patients are patronized at renal network meetings, I can understand how they feel.

Here's the deal, if it were not for these hundreds of thousands of people on dialysis, we wouldn't have the jobs we have, today. We need to respect patients and their families. They are patients and consumers. We provide service, but not customer service. It isn't just dialysis, it cuts across all lines of healthcare. Providers have created an "us against them" mentality, which is not patient friendly.

China's just about ready to have the largest, most modern train system in the world, very soon. That will mean little if they treat their customers like crap. "Hey, your lucky you're on the train, so shut up and eat your stale crackers, while I ignore you." That's not customer service and that's how many patients are treated. The overwhelming feeling, especially amoung larger providers, is that "patients just need to appreciate what they've got and shut up. I don't want to hear any complaints." So, everytime a patient or family member complains about anything, they are labled as "trouble makers." Some have even been threatened with discharge from the dialysis unit for complaining.

When professionals are in a position of power over a patient, they need to be aware of their actions, and how they are presenting themselves when a patient has concerns. Of course, like in any other business, there are chronic complainers, who will never be satisfied with care, no matter how good it is. In spite of that, you can't generalize that opinion to all patients. Most patients and families won't say anything until a situation becomes onerous. When they bring issues to administration, people need to listen.

For example, a nurse was poisioning patients. Some patients were suspicious, but no one said anything out of fear of reprisal. The result was a bunch of dead patients. That's the price of silencing our patients and their families.

http://www.propublica.org/article/dialysis-pr-leak-the-plan-to-spin-our-investigation

[anurseadvocate]

As far as I am concerned, the money spent on the Renal Networks should go towards supporting various aspects of patient care. Over the years, I have learned that when patients contact the Networks, being they have basically no authority as does the state when they investigate a complaint, well, the Networks are useless.

Thank you for stating you would not have a job if it were not for patients. I used to tell my staff that all the time. You are SO RIGHT ON when you say there is a culture that is 'us against them'... I have worked in healthcare for thirty years and never have I seen such a culture as I have seen in the dialysis environment, in many units. Further, your statement about labeling patients is also RIGHT ON THE DOT ----- retaliation in dialysis facilities is ALIVE and hard to prove. That overt, or covert behavior of staff can send a message to a patient e.g. Don't ask that question again, Leave me alone, Don't question anything I do -- just a shrug of the shoulders, eye movements, shaking of one's head and any other body language of staff sends that message to the patient.

When you mention a nurse poisoning patients, if you are talking about the Lufkin Dialysis Davita unit - well, many of us believe the nurse is innocent and that Davita used her as a scapegoat. There was enough evidence in the trial for the jury to state not guilty -- truly sad, very sad... this facility had major problems before these alleged incidents - Why do you say some patients were suspicous but no one said anything? I would refer to a Dr Peter Laird who followed the case - he was known as 'hemodoc' - a physician who required dialysis and has written about this trial, if this is what your referring to.... Propublica now has their tracker available where you can obtain any infomration on any facility in the US - dialysis facility reports that were not available to the public but ProPublica's Robin Fields, investigative reporter obtained these reports ---