System in Chaos

Interesting day -- not so much from an exciting call perspective, but from a system anaylsis perspective:

First call was for a forty year old man who lived in an apartment by himself with no nursing care. He's been in a wheelchair since he was injured in a car accident as a teenager. He used to get around with a manual wheelchair, but then one day his shoulder fractured, so now he has an electric wheelchair. His body was covered with bed sores and blisters. His elbow from resting on his wheelchair was one open raw sore. He said he didn't eat well because he had trouble getting and cooking food. His hygine was bad.

We did two round trips one from a nursing home, one from a private home to doctor's offices, where we waited while the doctor examined the patient, then brought them home. Each patient was bedridden, severely retarded, and totally dependent and incapable of conversation other than babbling.

We did a minor MVA where both passengers claimed neck pain. We boarded and collared them, and they took up two beds in the ER.

We did a nursing home call where a paranoid patient from the pscych ward thought other patients were trying to kill him so he threatened to kill them in self defense. He had to stand up for himself. He didn't strike anyone, he just told them to leave him alone or he would kill them. The cops came and we ended up getting him to come peacefuly to the hospital for evaluation. The nursing home wrote a note to the hospital saying don't send the patient back until he is no longer a threat to others. So he's in the pscyh ward because he's paraniod. So because he starts acting paranoid, they have to send him to the hospital? At the hospital we put him in a wheelchair outside a room, and handed him his paperwork to hold. His nurse was in the trauma room so we just told another nurse who the patient was.

And we did an HIV unconcious patient who was having focol seizures, the family said she had a brain infection, she fell last night, and maybe did a speedball today. None of them bothered to come to the hospital.

We did another call that I cannot for the life of me remember. I think it was an old sick person.

Our last call was for a invalid who called us because his visiting nurse didn't come. He wanted us to cook him dinner, help him take his medicine and put him to bed. We did everything except cook his dinner, we just gave him a bannana.

We were late to all of our calls. The hospitals were as busy as I have ever seen them. They had no rooms, no beds, not enough staff. They were putting people in wheelchairs and lining them up in the halls. Someone on the radio said, it was the first time they has seen bunk beds in an ER.

In case you didn't know, the health care system is falling apart.