A Word To The Wise.........

[NDXUFan]

Have been hearing a number of complaints about workers in dialysis, harassing and assaulting dialysis patients. It is assault under the law to touch someone when they have asked you not to touch them. http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2903.13 I have heard complaints of dialysis patients having their feet stepped on by dialysis personnel during a treatment, blood being thrown on the dialysis patient or dialysis patient's being hit with a salt water bag. In addition, I have heard complaints about patients asking that certain dialysis personnel not perform fistula sticks on them, after that dialysis worker hurt them the first time of the sticking. Again, if the patient asks you not touch them and that worker ignores the patient, that is grounds for an assault charge.

I have also heard of complaints where patients are being discharged and they have no clue that is coming..... I have also heard of "meetings" where the Kidney specialist, FA, Nurse, and Social Worker are in a room and stacked against the patient, who is ambushed and is unable to defend themselves. Please be advised, if the charges are false, the patient can hire an attorney and file a lawsuit for libel and slander. If the patient dies because of these actions, there is a possible wrongful death suit pursued by the patient's estate, in addition to a libel and slander.....

I really like the vast majority of you and I think you really care about the patients. However, as we all know, there are bad apples in any field, police included. I have advised patients who are assaulted by dialysis staff, to call 9-11 and press assault charges. I have also advised dialysis patients who are assaulted to contact their local district attorneys or victim's advocates.

I have also been told of cases where dialysis patients have been unfairly discharged, and given an option of a dialysis clinic 50-60 miles away from their home. Yes, I know this type of harassment goes on, it happens in government, all of the time. I was also told of a case where a man in a wheelchair with no legs, was discharged from a dialysis under police escort. As a former police officer, it is outrageous. Honestly, what do you think a man with no legs in a wheelchair is going to do to you???

Having worked as a police officer, I know and understand that there are two sides to every pancake and I have been cussed at, called every name in the book, ****** on, you name it, I have experienced it, before you say, "You do not know what it is like."

I have also heard of patients been discharged for disagreeing with reuse and for asking questions about their treatments. I also know that in those "meetings" the patient is not allowed to see the comments and charges against them, sounds like the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. Yes, if you are curious, my family is from Germany.

Yes, I know, many times management blames Nursing and it always is it so..... In fact, it happened to my mom. I know that many of you are good people :) However, my word to the wise to the bad apples, is that you are going to have some very unpleasant results if you abuse or assault dialysis patients. If you go to jail for this crime, I hate to tell you that the other inmates at the jail hit back. If you are curious, a misdemeanor of the first degree or M1 is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I am still confused abut this post....OP what is the point you are making? What do you wish to accomplish with this post? What are you looking for? Your thread has been posted accusatory and threatening. Take that up with those you have seen being abusive instead of threatening nursing in general about "A word to the wise" and "arrest with jail".

You have come to a nursing forum and made some strong accusations against nursing then admitted it was the dialysis techs...who aren't nurses. I am still unclear what your family history has to do with the point you are trying to make....whatever that may be.

I am sorry if you have witnessed abusive staff. They need to be reported immediately. In 35 years of nursing I have never seen ANY staff abuse a patient. I have however seen many patients abuse the staff.

I guess I don't understand where this aggression has stemmed from.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

I have never witnessed a dialysis patient being abused ever! What I have seen is Dialysis staff working hard, and going above and beyond the call of duty nearly every day.

If you have witnessed this abuse may I suggest you contact the Renal Network for you area and report what you are seeing

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

By the way if patients are discharged from dialysis centers it is normally a very long process, and there has to be lots of reasons with the final word normally coming from the Medical Director

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Just as an aside, if you look at this posters history, he comes across as extremely bitter about being a dialysis patient. I too have never seen what he seems to see on a frequent basis.

I echo Madwife's post: talk to the renal network - posting anonymously on the internet is not going to accomplish your goal of which none of us know what it is anyway.

[Marshall1]

Um..yeah...anyone can post the definition of assault....and as someone who has been a nurse for decades and married to a law enforcement officer for the same period of time I can say that the OP sounds like someone w/a little bit of knowledge, a large chip and the stories or examples that he posted lack credibility and evidence - some sound like fiction, some gossip and some that maybe were ready from other sites...I highly doubt he came in contact w/as many "dirty cops" and "horrible nurses" as he says - if so, then nursing AND law enforcement need a major overhaul because he makes himself sound like he is the only decent one - or one of the few decent ones - in the career - he also sounded off about teachers...

I'm not sure how "for real" this post is - sounds more like someone who is angry at nurses or at the hand life has dealt them...will definitely skip any further posts from this person - enough negative in the day w/o adding posts like this too it

[NDXUFan]

The vast majority of my family was in combat in the military. My Dad is a Chemist and retired from U.S. Army Nuclear artillery. People complaining about the police department, that stuff just rolls off my back, does not bother me and does not bother the vast majority of my fellow officers. Honestly, it just goes in one ear and out the other ear. The diabetic issue is from individuals at the clinics telling me it was my fault that I was a diabetic, to which they they were told that the kidney specialist does not know the cause of diabetes and neither do you. One of clinic personnel tried to lecture me loudly about potassium, until this loudmouth was told that the kidney specialist said I was to have a much potassium as possible. I seriously doubt that people in dialysis would have behavior problems in the clinics if they treated dialysis patients as people and human beings, not as dollar signs. Yes, I know, there are some people that are going to be abusive no matter what, I worked in the projects.

I get many phone calls about dialysis patients being abused. I would be happy to post names and cases, but, as you are aware, the censors of this board do not appreciate names being posted.

[NDXUFan]

The problem for you is that I have contact the Renal Network and all they do is sit on their hands and do absolutely Nothing.

[NDXUFan]

Read my posts, I never said that I had met "tons" of "dirty police officers or "dirty nurses." Anytime, that I have tried to post names and cases, your friendly board censors have shut me down.

[NDXUFan]

How can you claim someone is bitter when you have never met them???

[NDXUFan]

Actually, I am not very aggressive as you claim, I just want my treatments and a transplant. I am going to prove my point:

Larry Hall was a Davita patient that was discharged immediately by Davita because he challenged Davita on the performance of his dialysis facility. Mr. Hall was given a "helpful" list of dialysis centers to receive dialysis, the closest one was at least 50 miles away. Mr. Hall sued Davita and won a $10,000 judgement against Davita. Actually, for what he suffered, that verdict was a joke.

-The Atlantic studied 1,500 dialysis clinics around the United States between '02 and '09 and found unsanitary or unsafe conditions in just under 50 percent of the clinics.......

-According to the CDC, infection is the second leading cause of death in dialysis patients.

$1,250,000 judgment for death due to lack of dialysis.] A mother whose kidneys had failed needed dialysis three times a week. As one of her dialysis sessions began, her nephrologist canceled the dialysis because the young woman was bleeding. The nephrologist had the patient transferred to the local emergency room, where the ER doctor placed a suture to stop any more bleeding. The nephrologist testified she also told the ER doctor by telephone to order blood work to see if the patient needed to have dialysis restarted. The ER doctor testified the nephrologist never told him to order any blood work. An order for blood work was nonetheless entered at the emergency room, but the patient was sent home before any blood work was done. Hours after the patient was sent home, someone from the hospital canceled the order for blood work from the hospital's computer system. The next day, the patient's family called her nephrologist, who assumed the blood work had been completed and was normal. The nephrologist's office told the patient's family that the patient could wait another day for her dialysis. The young mother died that evening due to hyperkalemia, meaning an excessive amount of potassium that would have been cleaned from her system by dialysis. The Law Offices of John Day filed suit for the patient's elementary, school-aged son against the ER doctor, the hospital, two ER nurses, and the nephrologist. After thirteen days of trial, a jury returned a verdict of $1,250,000 against the ER doctor, the hospital, the nephrologist, and one of the nurses.

http://www.johndaylegal.com/lawyer-attorney-1165421.html

World's largest dialysis provider named in wrongful death lawsuits linked to GranuFlo | Ferrell Law

DaVita HealthCare Partners said Tuesday it will pay $389 million to settle criminal and civil anti-kickback investigations and plans to end joint ventures with kidney doctors involving 28 dialysis clinics.

Read more: DaVita says it will pay $389 million to settle federal investigations - The Denver Post DaVita says it will pay $389 million to settle federal investigations - The Denver Post

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Does anyone on this board believe sincerely that 12 hours per week of dialysis is enough? Even some of the Frensenius kidney specialists are writing papers that 4 days per week should be the bare minimum. Over 90 percent of dialysis workers have admitted that they could not follow the renal diet, so how do they expect the dialysis patient do the same thing? Have read many papers about dialysis patients suffering from malnutrition. My point is not that I am bitter, as I knew some of you would claim, before I even started this thread, is that the dialysis system is truly not working for the benefit of the dialysis patient, either in dialysis or transplants. 12 hours per week of dialysis is not enough to sustain a decent quality of life, I receive much more dialysis than that bare minimum standard. In addition, making dialysis patients wait years upon years for a transplant, so that third parties who have no stake in the outcome of the transplant, who are making millions off of the suffering of dialysis, while claiming that the donor should not have monetary compensation is bogus and filled with hypocrisy.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

People complaining about the police department, that stuff just rolls off my back, does not bother me and does not bother the vast majority of my fellow officers.

I'm an ethical nurse that acts as my patient's advocate. Because of that I think I need to take my direction from how you responded to reports of police brutality and corruption. Moving on. . .

[NDXUFan]

You misunderstood, I think police misconduct should be investigated to the full extent of the law and if they are guilty they should hanged. What I meant this that I did not take it personally and did my job professionally to the best of my ability. If you had read my other post, you would have read that I believe police officers should be held to a higher standard, as should be attorneys and doctors, as they have fiduciary duty to clients and patients in a court of law. Here is an example of physicians doing the right thing:

"The Denver-based grand jury has been investigating for at least a year and a half whether DaVita arranged a joint venture with a group of Denver kidney doctors in order to bring more dialysis patients into DaVita clinics. At the center of the case is whether DaVita charged fair market value to the doctors, who received part ownership in seven dialysis clinics.

The doctor group paid $1.89 million for half ownership in clinics that generated estimated annual revenues of more than $28 million, according to documents obtained by The Denver Post in 2011.

DaVita had offered 40 percent ownership to another group of Denver doctors for eight times the price about 17 months earlier but was rebuffed."

ND: The last group of physicians should be applauded. I can see where a group of doctors would want to buy ownership to make sure that they had control so that their patients would be getting excellent care. :) I want the kidney specialist to be in charge, not a bunch of people who know much less than the kidney specialist or Kidney nurse.

Read more: Denver-based DaVita sets aside $300 million to settle kickback probes - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/ci_23210434/denver-based-davita-sets-aside-300m-settle-kickback#ixzz30ykKFgeq

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