don't trust, then validate

Well, it's a good thing we got mom admitted to the hospital last night. The fever Sister A couldn't get to come down yesterday was due to a urinary tract infection (UTI), something that we suspect TKO should have known Tuesday, when chemo was interrupted. UTI, so simple, eh? Not when you have a completely silo-ed institution and protocols that are designed solely to C-Y-A each department's collective rear ends.

Oncology looks at illness strictly through their cancer lens. So, instead of consulting with an internist Tuesday regarding the liver malfunction, Dr. C sends mom home with nothing to address her jaundiced condition. Hey failing patient, just wait until TKO can do a thorough CT-scan with the emphasis on finding out if the cancer has spread to the liver.

Tuesday night, I said to Sister A that chemo is very toxic to the liver, and that it's not uncommon to have liver problems. Yes, of course it's important to know if the cancer has spread, but there are other explanations and they should be, at the very least, eliminated.

We're happy that an ER doc, Dr.H, took some initiative in examining mom. The UTI was id'd right away and antibiotics administered along with saline for her dehydration. There were a couple of other minor issues that were addressed and Dr. H confirmed our growing suspicion that the liver issue could and should be addressed by means other than a CT-scan.

So, mom is scheduled for an ultrasound today to see if there might be other, more easily corrected reasons for her liver's malfunction. Dr. H explained to Sis C and Sister A that chemo is hard on the liver and that there could be an obstruction that could be seen using ultrasound. Thank you, Dr. H, for listening to your patient and her family and providing them with information they didn't have to pry out with the jaws of life.

Another irritating note, TKO completely screwed up their internal communication on pain dosage. If my sisters weren't logging everything down in the admitting process, the orders would be completely wrong. As it was, Sister A had to make them go back to the docs twice, and she also noted the written order was incorrect.

The compartmentalizing of specialities and departments in these healthcare institutions is bad for the patients, bad for the staff and is plain bad medicine.

Please Obama, pass a universal healthcare package so we can get rid of our wasteful, inefficient for-profit healthcare model. And healthcare professionals, humble yourselves and listen to your patients and their caregivers. They might actually know something you don't.