So in the ICU in which I work, we have a patient who had cardiac surgery, did well post op and all...but she is a well-to-do lady who apparently is buddy buddy with a hospital administrator and also frequently invests millions of dollars (through her business, I think) into my hospital every couple of years.
We all knew she was coming in for surgery. Several days prior to her admission, the hospital blocked off an ICU room, had it terminally cleaned, and taped off. Under no circumstances were we to use that room. Mind you, during this time, my hospital was on ICU divert in the ER (bc of lack of beds). They also blocked off/terminally cleaned a private room on the tele floor, in anticipation of her departure from the ICU. There has also been a shortage of tele beds lately, too.
The whole situation with her has been a headache for many reasons. One, the whole blocking off room thing. Two, her personality. Besides being filthy rich, she is demanding and unreasonable...wants a fresh box of tissue paper each morning, flowers in her room (which we do not do in the ICU), linens changed twice a day, special food that we have to obtain in the dead hours of the night.... She has even been dictating how she wants her nursing/medical care. Normally, unless a patient is unstable in my unit, we get all of our surgical patients out of bed every morning...well she doesnt like that at all, so we have been told to let her do what she wants. She also decides when she wants her medications, regardless of our medication schedule. My manager even said we have to make her a 1:1 assignment at all times (even though she has been completely stable the last few days, no drips or lines) and he even picked which nurses he wants to take care of her each shift, presumably bc he thinks some are better at "customer service" than others, regardless of how good of a nurse they are. She even has a hospital sitter in her ICU room to get her whatever she wants...again something we dont do in the ICU.
The whole thing is disgusting. It seems like money can get anyone anything. And its a shame that the uppers in my facility are just falling all over this lady and catering to every need, no matter how unreasonable. LOL the hospital CEO even telephoned into the operating room during her procedure to make sure everything was going ok.
The nurses in my unit are totally disgusted by all this show. We treat all of our patients equally and provide excellent care to everyone, regardless of their bank account. And keeping beds open for days before her arrival, in our opinion, is unacceptable when there is a patient in need of that bed. Makes me miss the county hospital I worked at, where there were no special privledges, only good nursing and medical care.
**Update** When I left work this morning they were planning on transferring the princess out to her telemetry "suite". The hospital adminstrators were planning on stopping by to escort her to her new room, which by the way, was supposedly going to be full of flowers and candy, balloons, and gifts...all from the hospital **GAG** What a spectacle.
