ok after reading the article posted I decided to do some digging on the Hosp. she was taken to. The hospital is a state of the art facility, bacically brand new, opened in 2002. It sound like every Nurses Dream Hospital. I found that the hospital recieved a Press Ganey Summit Award. Here's the article from Press Ganey Website
http://www.pressganey.com/cs/industr...e?contentId=28
I am an R.N. Cardiac Nurse and I work at one of the Pioneer Heart Hosp. in the Northeast Part of the US, but one of the downfalls about where I work is, it is an inner city hosp. with a large ,almost alarming number of cardiac pt.'s.
Another down fall is, within the last few years a large number of hospitals in this area have closed, and I mean LARGE number. AS a result diverting the pt.s to the 2 major hospitals in the inner city area that these pt's can go to seeking medical treatment, overflowing our ER's and pt. beds.
The reason I am saying all of this is, I wonder if she was brought to a hospital like the one I work at in an inner-city, would she have recieved the same type of care?
Our ER is constantly at full capacity, and the way the ER was designed there is no room for expansion AT ALL, making it very cramped and condensed. My hospital has gotten to the point of putting traffic light type indicators all over the hospital to alert as as to the capacity. Green light is low, white light is low-medium, Orange light is medium and Red light is maxium capacity meaning all 600+beds are full.
We even have a protocol to follow when we reach the orange capacity, and when we are at RED capacity there is a hospital wide ALERT code called, and an alert status is issued to the other hospitals in the area to see if they can accept transfers.
As an RN working in this enviornment every day, I wonder if she would have had the same outcome in my hospital. Or do I dare say it, was it just fate? The fact the husband did CPR the right way, the Paramedics show up at exactly the right time to defib, b/c as healthcare professionals we know that is key during cardiac arrest, the fact she lived near a new state of the art cardiac hospital that she could be rushed to, the fact that the medical staff used the cooling suit and knew how to use it and what to do, and how the husband stayed with her made the decision to extubate and take her off the vent, and what from I read he still had some hope she would wake up, or (this one is forever going to tear me in half) that they were actually soul mates and fate took over.
Or was it just a medical anomaly? Or was it just the type of care she recieved from all parties involved. From what I read in the Press Ganey article about the hospital, and some comments I found from actual pt.'s that recieved care at that facility, it is a very very focused cardiac pt. care facility and how wonderful the Nursing and MD's and staff preformed their jobs.
If you read the press ganey article I linked, it talkes about how the hospital has staff opinion and how the staff , including nursing can choose certain options for the pt., the MD's get report cards that that staff fill out. Focus on internal communication b/t heathcare providers, is a major theme. Happy Medical Staff+State of the art facility+focused pt. care=positive outcome it seems. It's almost like the Disneyworld of Hospitals, seems too good to be true, but maybe this hospital got it right. It is very very interesting. My hospital uses the press ganey and I don;t swear by it, but I wonder if we all worked in this type of env. if we would have better pt. outcomes, less job stress, more positive productivity, and I am not speaking for all of us Nurses cause some of us love our hospitals(I am not going to comment on my current feeling of my hospital..ahhhummm let's just say I love being an RN, but....) but may actually enjoy going to work b/c we as healthcare professionals have a support system.
Ok enough of me rambling but this article really got me thinking..thanks so much for posting!!!!!
Would you like to comment?
