Hmm, it takes me 5 minutes to do what they can't accomplish in a week!

Quote from: needlebearer on August 14, 2006, 06:07:31 PM

First of all Sara...let me say I am sorry about your husbands foot. I hope everything goes okay. I am a tech in a not for profit unit and we address these issues quickly when they come up. We get pt's appointments and follow up for problems as we see them or they are brought to our attention. I am sorry your unit does not do this. HOWEVER. Dialysis units are just that. Units for dialysis. If a patient is diabetic, I am quite sure they have an internal medicine doctor who follows their care regarding insulin changes, blood sugar levels, etc. This is the person who should be notified of these events. Dialysis nurses, techs, etc may notify these offices when we notice something, but as a family member, why did you not call the physician yourself when you first noticed a problem?

Dialysis units become catchalls for all of our patients problems and as for our unit...we try to accomodate people. But there are only so many hours in a day and we can't possibly deal with every health problem of every patient. This is why you should have a primary care physician. We actually had a patient with severe cardiac chest pain come to the unit instead of the E.R. They were actually having a heart attack and chose us over 911. Scary.

Yes, we are here for the patient. That is understood. But patients need to take more control over their own health. If you are the bosses...which you are...call your own doctor, report to the ER...do whatever it takes to help yourselves. This is a partnership...which means patients and health care workers should work together...each taking some responsibility in the care of the patient...YOU.

Thanks for your input. To answer your question why did I not call the doctor myself, the nephrologist's office (not the dialysis unit) was the one supposed to be calling the specialist for us. I had no idea which specialist it was, and they supposedly had some sort of relationship with them. I try not to make every phone call regarding my husband's care, because as much as I want to mother-hen him, he is a grown man and I am trying not to enable excess dependency if that makes sense. I do place some semblance of blame on the nurse at the dialysis unit for saying 'oh it's nothing' when really it's not. As brilliant as I may seem

(and modest too) I do not have a medical degree. The nurse should know, any type of wound like that in a diabetic patient (or a dialysis patient maybe?) should be looked at by a specialist. We depend on these people to look out for us and when we go to them for help not to be blown off.