The issue of patient care is one that hits home for a lot of people. Everyone has either experienced a hospital stay themselves or had a loved one in a hospital bed.
It’s a stressful time and if family has work obligations, or few family members are available, the extra help needed just isn’t there.
There was a time when you were admitted to the hospital, the first thing to happen was a visit from a person who asked your food preferences, asked about your state of mind and how you felt, and asked what kind of support network you had around you. And if you needed help with your food tray, it was there.
Now, you have to fill out your own food preferences and if you are not coherent enough to do that and family aren’t there to do it for you, you get what they give you. There seems to be a disconnect between the dietary aide department and instructions from nurses/doctors.
And it seems now that any “extra” care a patient may need such as help eating or filling out forms or even getting ready for bed must be done by family members or kind visitors.
That is hard on the patients and hard on their family members.
There is no question changes were needed at the CKHA and Lori Marshall is doing a great job carrying the ball with what Rob Devitt started to put the alliance back on its feet – financially and emotionally with staff morale.
Now that some of the bigger issues are being solved, getting down to nitty gritty details like making sure people do eat and can eat what is brought to them to help them recover better and faster, and staff are allocated to make that happen if family members can’t be around sounds like a good plan.
A hospital stay is stressful enough for all involved. Helping people recover mind, spirit and body is a great next step.
