What does your facility do for "big wigs"?

[zumalong]

Just curious what other facilities do when a "big wig" is admitted. I worked on surgical floor and over years have had several patients that we considered VIP's by our administration. One CEO of corp. (multi-million yr. pay--not including bonuses) had two private rooms (door between and furniture brought in second room), they painted all the walls he would see when returning from surgery, and Dr. gave him FREE colace to take home (one months supply). Give me a break!!!!!

[justpoorfect]

One of my clinical patients last semester was a former hospital administrator who had a total knee replacement done. He had plenty of criticisms for our local hospital where he did NOT have the surgery because they told him they would not use a CPM machine on him afterward. He praised the new and beautiful hospital where he had surgery - loved their Dietary/Room Service concept. Post-surgery, he was very pleasant about the hospital care at this smaller hospital. Though I was a bit nervous, my instructor pointed out that his ramblings did help him retain some sense of importance and control even as he was "out of the loop" as a retiree and his health declining. Overall, I feel I was an empathetic sounding-board and gave him excellent care. I valued his wisdom as well. A good experience.

[MT RN]

I've had a couple of pts. that I was told in report were "VIP'S" for one reason or another. My feeling is that I try to give my best care to all of my pts., I figure if I give my best, there's nothing "extra" to give to a VIP.

I don't look at the pts. background, education, race, sex or position in life. I figure that they are there to get well and I will do my best to help them along that road no matter who they are.

[banditrn]

I've had a couple of pts. that I was told in report were "VIP'S" for one reason or another. My feeling is that I try to give my best care to all of my pts., I figure if I give my best, there's nothing "extra" to give to a VIP.

I don't look at the pts. background, education, race, sex or position in life. I figure that they are there to get well and I will do my best to help them along that road no matter who they are.

That's my attitude, too.

We have this lady in our LTCF whose husband was something or other during the Nixon administration. She had to wait 10 minutes the other nite for us to answer her lite - we were both tied up with other residents - and she was furious!!

[mitchsmom]

... I'm new and I've only known of one semi-VIP who really didn't get any special treatment except some supervisor told us she was a VIP and we all walked away and said what MT RN wrote.

[NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN]

Our hospital went overboard when a family member of the hospitals vice president was admited. He got all leather furniture (brand new), the doctor called about him every hour to talk to the family members, and they even made a schedule at the nurses desk for this patient. Every hour someone had to check on him, and sign your name on the list as a proof that you did it. It was a little too much.

[Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN]

We have a patient in our dialysis clinic who is wealthy, but not a VIP in any other sense that I know of. She used to come to the clinic dripping in jewelry but they asked her to stop, saying it's really not appropriate in that setting.

She is most irritating about insisting she be the first one off treatment. It doesn't matter why someone else comes off first (they were there first, their treatment time is shorter, they aren't tolerating treatment well and want to leave AMA) she throws a tantrum and demands to be taken off first. She will claim she has to go to the bathroom or feign another complaint to get someone's attention. She grills the people around her asking "what time do you get off [treatment]?" to find out who is stopping treatment first. The other patients feel that she is nosey and prying. If she finds someone who is leaving before her, the fun and games begin.

She likes having someone stand over her while she holds her sites to stop the bleeding. If she is holding her sites and the tech pays attention to someone else, she'll let go and start bleeding all over the place and yell "I'm bleeding" at the top of her lungs so that the tech will have to stop giving care to someone else and go back to taking care of her.

It's just spoiled, childish behavior that's interferes with everyone else's day. Drives me up a wall.

[puggymae]

I took care of the wife of a country music star once when she was having a baby. Can you say NIGHTMARE. I will take poor people who appreciate nursing care over a diva that thinks nurses are scullery maids any day. They would actually snap their fingers at me and point at say the water pitcher or trashcan! I left the Nashville area to as far away from VIP's as I could get. :wink2:

[jb2u, ASN, RN]

When I worked for a hospital in Tampa, they moved a pt out of her room and painted the room, so that the mother of a cardiologist could be in that room. I believe everyone should be given the same EXCELLENT treatment!

[MT RN]

.I will take poor people who appreciate nursing care over a diva that thinks nurses are scullery maids any day. They would actually snap their fingers at me and point at say the water pitcher or trashcan!

I've had pts. do that, I simply give them a questioning look and say "I'm sorry, I don't understand, do you need something?" At that point they will usually say whatever it is that they want. I will then reply "I'd be happy to do that, all you had to do was ask!" Of course I keep a huge smile on my fact the whole time, they usually get the idea.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

i worked for a number of years for a hospital that had many, many celebrity patients. i've posted about this before to threads about this subject. we were told in orientation that these people were to be treated extra special, no ifs ands or buts. many of them donated thousands and thousands of dollars to the hospital. one of these patients was a former president of the united states and many more were movie stars and corporate biggies. are you gonna give a president attitude? or a movie star? i think not. first of all, you are going to be history because these people are going to be on the phone complaining about you to people higher up in the food chain than you ever knew existed. money talks. that's how the capitalist system works. if you don't like it, move to a communist country where everyone is supposedly equal and deal with their system of bs. i, personally, enjoyed being around celebs. some of them were most enjoyable and most, contrary to what many of you might think, were not as demanding as you might think. you might learn something from them since a good many started out in the very same position of having empty pockets like many of us and i found that they loved to talk about it. contrary to what some of you experienced, many of the celebrities we dealt with were often just the opposite and wanted their privacy. many saw a hospital stay as a chance for rest, quiet and a chance to get away from their very busy worlds while dealing with their illnesses.

[obliviousRN]

I've had good and bad experiences. Everyone should get equal care.......... but do they? Not always. I do try to treat everyone the same. Mr. Movie Star was treated the same as Mr. Drug User. Mrs. Politician the same as Mrs. Mom for the 6th time. It's about respect and professional etiquette.

The things that piss me off are the "special accomodations" by administration. Extra meals, rooms being refurnished or remodeled, etc. It's crap. If they are coming to our hospital, then they are going to get the same type of rooms other people get. That's how I think it should be anyway.