Over the weekend my mother-in-law passed away. She had been in the hospital for 5 days. Upon being admitted, the attending physician took her off all of her medications – 25 in all. REALLY! Over a dozen medications for one woman?!
In January my husband suffered an acute medical condition. The breakdown in communication between the ER, primary care doctor and specialist is too much to list but this one is my favorite: While in the specialist office his temperature was taken and the nurse said “it looks a little high…what was your temperature yesterday.” We didn’t know. Neither did they, despite the fact that we had been the ER the day before and the records had been transferred. Turns out the records were on paper and the specialist is transitioning to electronic…so in the interim, the nurse didn’t have ready access to the information.
In late November of last year another family member was struck down by a stroke. In her early 30s, this came without a warning. She made it but the ongoing strain on her family is gigantic. Her spouse’s health insurance wouldn’t cover everything and Medicare doesn’t provide for home health. So, she was made a ward of the state and her husband is now her caregiver at the expense of their marriage.
I don’t tell you these stories because of a perverse need to share intimate details of my life or violate the HIPAA rights of my family members. I share them to highlight the work that still needs to be done. Regardless of the “progress” made through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (did you know last month marked the one year anniversary?) there is still a ways to go.
As we head into our second year of PPACA and we continue to argue over the high cost of insurance and who is responsible let’s step back a little and examine some other problems with our system and start talking with our legislators about what PPACA can do to help other families like mine.
So sorry to hear about your mother-in-law.
ReplyDelete