You call these DIRECTIONS??

Specialties Home Health

Published

The home is 68 miles from the office.

Take the Hwy towards Taos

A half a mile past Ojo Caliente you will see a sign that says

"PIGS--->".

The arrow points right but you need to take a left and go 10 or 12 miles.

You will pass an abandoned store on the left and will need to take the 2nd paved rt.

Drive until you see a blue gate with a cross beside it.

That is not where you turn.

Take the next rd (dirt) to the rt. past the blue gate.

You will cross a rickity wood bridge. If the water in the river is low, drive across the river because the bridge isn't safe.

The "Garcia" house is the one with the big Virgin Mary on the balcony.

PS: The rottweilers hardly ever bite.

Specializes in MS Home Health.

The spring of 2002 when I was working in home health , the nurses had to canoe to some of their clients due to flooding of streams and such. Of course then we had to have policies and procedures for such. LOL. I was the P&P writer for the agency.

renerian

One day, I had to admit a patient on a farm. Lucky thing I got one of his boarders to give directions, as he didn't speak much English, was quite deaf, and had a REALLY strong accent. And of course, Yours Truly (me) wears hearing aids....

I found the right laneway without much trouble...only one little problem. We'd JUST had 8" of fresh, wet snow, and the narrow 'road' into his place ran along the top of the dike that forms the edge of the Holland Marsh. The canal was JUST to my left, and there was a steep drop to a woods JUST to my right! To top it off, I'd been warned about a couple of bad mudholes in the lane. 'Don't stop', were the instructions, 'just gun your way through, or you'll get stuck!'

I was gripping the wheel with white knuckles the whole way in (it was about a mile off the main road), and heaved a gigantic sigh of relief once I arrive.

Came time to leave, I backed over a couple of really bad frozen ruts, and got the car stuck, with the frame actually resting on the frozen mud. The patient lived alone, was in his 80's and in no shape to give me any help. I took out my trusty shovel, did a bit of excavating, then was able to rock the car free....

Needless to say, I passed this case over to someone ELSE as fast as I decently could! [Okay, he REALLY was a mental health case, rather than a medical case...] :chuckle

What is wrong with those directions?

To get to my house (if you are coming from "downtown") you take a left on the dirt road after the white cows with black spots (NOT a left on the paved road after the brown cows with white faces), go about 3 miles up and take a right on the paved road with the rusted out truck in the field on the left.

Other valuable land marks include the great big apple tree that blew over 3 years ago and the stand of cottonwood trees after the cedars.

Specializes in Oncology, Hospice, Research.

:roll Only a nurse who has worked in the home can appreciate how hard it is to find some homes.... although this one is up there!

I went to do a hospice admission once in a very rural, wooded area and had similar directions, " turn at the 3rd, unmarked gravel road past the turn in the road, and over the second small bridge" and go to the large white house. I drove up and down the road looking for ANY white house, large or small. Too many unmarked roads to figure out the right one. Cell phone wouldn't work so I drove BACK to an area where I could get cell phone coverage, called the family and they said, "did you drive through the field with the cows, around the barn? You can't see the house from the barn, it is behind the barn?!!!" No....silly me, I didn't drive into the field of cows. Sigh...the patients always know where they live and they can't imagine that we don't.

Thanks for this post...it made my day!

Wren,

I did (Peds) homecare for several years...up until January when I hung up my car keys & back pack of supplies for a head set and a protocol book :).

And I wouldn't have driven thru the cow fiend either (unless thy had included it in the directions).

Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.
Originally posted by kids-r-fun

Wren,

I did (Peds) homecare for several years...up until January when I hung up my car keys & back pack of supplies for a head set and a protocol book :).

And I wouldn't have driven thru the cow fiend either (unless thy had included it in the directions).

Me and thee! :rotfl:

Rusty, I can sympathize w/ you. I travel sometimes 230 miles in a day because I have to cover. I even have a GPS which does'nt always work in samll burgs. but sometimes, you hvae to admit defeat, do a phone sup., and have the RN on the case do the case monitoring visit for me. Good Luck!

ROFLMAO...having done a brief stint in HH, I would often call the office and give the "intake nurse" my "opinion" of her directions...I would then correct the directions so that ANYONE could find the patient's home...got really tired of having the stupid directions cause me to drive humpteen miles outta the way...knocked on many a door to ask "could you please tell me where Mr/Mrs so- and- so live"...got into many a dangerous situation without administrative backup...so I told them bye-bye...hope your new job is working for ya,Russell..

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Your intake nurses get DIRECTIONS??

I'm luck to get the correct name of the doctor and phone number ordering home care. Aetna insurance company will call in a referral without giving us a Social Security number "NOT WHAT WERE PERMITTED TO DIVULGE" yet it's the first thing eligibilty prompts ask for--go figure.

I'm going good if I get the correct address, phone number, doctor +his/her phone # and diagnosis pried out of the referral source. Several discharge planners will only give you the facility phone number. We stopped accepting residents as referring docs from teaching hospitals as couldn't get our plans of treatment signed.

Several of our city patients only know that they live with Cousin Jean or Uncle William no address known...."just call them":rolleyes:

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