Glen Beck's hospital experience

I'm tired of the Glen Beck thing. You can't make all of the people happy all of the time but you can make some of the people happy some of the time. With that said, I'll stop reading the thread and go on back to trying to deliver care to my patients, who sometimes do get discharged and have to go back to the ER...for some reason or other. Usually with the follow-up phone calls, you find that it's for pain or bleeding. If you inquire further, they didn't take their pain medication on schedule or they weren't icing, resting and elevating something. Go figure.

Let's all remember Keith Richard's kind words about nurses:

http://people.monstersandcritics.com...er_1163283.php

Cheers!!

Well, that's how I want to go--- falling out of a coconut tree on a South Sea Island!

Oldiebutgoodie

Some things come to mind:

Patients with a history of drug abuse are notoriously difficult to get good pain control on. I'm really sorry about that. We do the best we can to help them but it is THEIR fault that this problem exists.

Pain is NOT an emergent problem - no matter what the patient thinks. Neither is being unable to void.

Nurses aren't mind readers - if you need a wheelchair or assistance walking, for heavens sake WHY wouldn't you ASK for it?

If the doctor had been doing his job, Mr Beck wouldn't have gone home and the whole ER ordeal wouldn't have happened.

If Mr Beck hadn't insisted on going home the ordeal wouldn't have happened.

If the Dr has gotten off his lazy @ss and direct admitted Mr Beck, he wouldn't have had to wait in the ER.

The Dr mislead Mr Beck that "calling ahead" would get him to the front of the line.

Mr Beck was poorly educated about what to expect regarding post-op pain. The surgeon and anesthetist were responsible for this.

Mr Beck makes several uninformed statements regarding the medicines he was taking (their uses and side effects),foley catheters, need for oxygen and breathing monitoring, etc. Yes, he should have been better educated. But he seems to think he knows more than he does.

He complains of not having his pain addressed but admits that he was not using his PCA. If he was afraid of it stopping his breathing why not ask his nurse to explain (again, not mind readers).

Mr Beck seemed to be under the impression he should get better care because of his fame.

Mr Beck wants to place the blame on the hospital and nurses. The doctor and Mr Beck himself seem to be the reason he was in this situation.

Monitoring breathing is common in PACU. Once discharged by anesthesia, it is no longer necessary unless a problem arises. If he was able to verbalize to the nurse -it seems he was breathing adequately and she was assessing him.

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If I could talk to him, this is what I would say-


Mr Beck:

Take responsibility for your care. Participate! Ask questions, ask for explanations.
Don't just assume nurses can read your mind and know what you need or what you need to know more about.

If you need help (i.e. a wheelchair) ask for it.

If your doctor recommends that you stay overnight - stay.

Nowadays nurses are extremely busy and we prioritize care. If your nurse wasn't spending much time with you, that means you were stable and not in danger.

If you were given a PCA, that means it was considered safe and you were expected to use it. If you were afraid of the side effects why didn't you tell the nurse and ask for further information?

Monitoring your breathing after surgery is common. When you were allowed to leave the recovery area it was because you were breathing okay and was no longer necessary. If you can talk, you are breathing alright. Panicking about it just makes the feeling of not being able to breathe worse. If the nurse says you are breathing fine - relax.

Your wait in the ER was because pain and bladder distension are not life-threating.
Life-threating conditions are seen first. And just because the waiting room patients were "sitting down" does not mean their condition was not worse than yours.

Your doctor could have bypassed the wait by admitting you himself - he knew that your condition was not an emergency and that you would wait. Calling ahead does nothing - you will not get seen ahead of a sicker patient.

Also, don't just assign blame without finding out who the responsible party actually is.

In this case - I'm afraid it's largely YOU!

I think you should send that to him. I really do.

I agree. Excellent analysis and excellent post.

I'm afraid it wouldn't do any good. Sigh.

Couldn't hurt any. It's well written and contains accurate/helpful info. It could provide him with some insight in the future if he is ever in the hospital again. It's important for him to know why he waited and how his doctor could have aided him if he saw fit. Truth is everyone but Beck knows this wasn't an emergency. PLEASE send it.

Okay, I revised some and sent the following message to Mr Beck's email. on his site it says this:

This is the general contact for reaching Glenn Beck. Please note that Glenn gets hundreds of emails everyday and while he does read them he does not always have the opportunity to answer them all.

So he should read it. If I receive an answer I will post it.

The email I sent read:

Subject: Regarding your recent bad health care experience

Body:

Mr Beck:

Take responsibility for your care. Participate! Ask questions, ask for explanations.

Don't just assume nurses can read your mind and know what you need or what you need to know more about.

Ask what medicines you will be given, what they are given for, what side effects they may have, how often should you need them, how safe they are, etc. If you don't ask questions, the medical staff is going to assume you don't have any.

If you need help (i.e. a wheelchair) ask for it.

If your doctor recommends that you stay overnight - stay.

Your doctor had the responsibility to inform you of the amount of post operative pain you would be expected to have.

Assuming the doctor knew about your past history of drug abuse, he should have informed you that it is often very difficult to achieve adequate pain control in present or former abusers.

He also should have warned the anesthesiologist of the likelihood of your pain being very difficult to control because of this.

Nowadays nurses are extremely busy and we prioritize care. If your nurse wasn't spending much time with you, that means you were stable and not in danger.

If you were given a PCA, that means it was considered safe and you were expected to use it. If you were afraid of the side effects why didn't you tell the nurse and ask for further information?

Monitoring your breathing after surgery is common. When you were allowed to leave the recovery area it was because you were breathing okay and was no longer necessary. If you can talk, you are breathing alright. Panicking about it just makes the feeling of not being able to breathe worse. If the nurse says you are breathing fine - relax.

Your wait in the ER was because pain and bladder distension are not life-threating.
Life-threating conditions are seen first. And just because the waiting room patients were "sitting down" does not mean their condition was not worse than yours.

Nurses cannot take more patients than there is space available in the emergency room. Lots of patients are waiting for a test to be done, labs to be drawn, lab results to come back, a physician to come for a consult, etc. In those conditions the nurse can only wait as well. Nurses do have the right to socialize with their co-workers when they have nothing to do.

Your doctor knew that your condition would not be a priority in the emergency room and that you would wait in pain. Calling ahead does nothing - you will not get seen ahead of a sicker patient.

The doctor had the option of direct admitting you. You would have bypassed the emergency room and been taken directly to a hospital room. Any orders he wanted for pain control would have been started with no waiting.

The hospital system that you vilified did the best they could (excepting the rude nurse in the emergency room). The doctors you praised so highly are responsible for a large part of your bad experience.

So, don't assign blame without finding out who the guilty are.

In this case - I'm afraid it was largely your doctors and YOU!


Sincerely,
My name and title here

Received an automated response a few minutes after sending the email:

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Thanks so much for the email. Due to the volume of mail this may be
the only response you see.

While I do not always see it in a timely fashion I do try to read all
of my mail. However, I average over 1000 letters a day and there is no
way I can respond to most letters.

I am glad you are listening and even though you may not see a response,
I want you to know that I am listening as well.

Thanks,

Glenn Beck