When Your Parents Go To The Hospital Don’t Let Them Go Alone
You should NEVER allow your parents or older loved ones to go to the hospital alone!
Whenever a patient, whether or not the patient is a Senior, is admitted overnight to stay in a hospital, we recommend that someone else stay with them at all times to advocate for them, to be an observer/witness for what takes place, and to be there for them when they need help. This advocate can be a family member or friend, and when family or friends are not available, we recommend that the patient or the patient’s family have a professional caregiver stay with the patient in their room.
I recently was admitted for one night at one of our local hospitals following surgery earlier in the day. The surgery went well and I was admitted to a room for a night to recover while they watched me to make sure I was all right. Because we frequently help others navigate the healthcare system, we knew enough to plan for my wife to stay with me, and it was a good thing that she did.
I was only awake for brief periods of time but when I did wake up, it was usually because I had to go to the bathroom. The nurses on the floor had told me that I could not get up to go to the bathroom without their assistance, and so the first few times that I needed their help we called one of them using the call button. Each time, a nurse came in, took my request for assistance, promised to come back right away, and then left. Each time, after waiting an hour for them to come back, my wife assisted me and we did fine. From then on, we just did it ourselves.
If I had not had my wife there as a caregiver and advocate, my night would have been terrible. Thanks to her help, I was able to get through the night successfully and I was allowed to go home the next day.
Note that this occurred at the best hospital available to us. I wouldn’t have agreed to stay at either of the other two local hospitals, because we some of our elderly clients have been discharged from those hospitals with MRSA infections that they acquired during their stays at those hospitals. These are so-called HAIs, Healthcare-Associated Infections; they are also called nosocomial infections which means infections that are the result of treatment in a hospital that are not secondary results of the patient’s original reason for hospitalization.
If you can have family or friends go with your parent for hospital stays, by all means do so. If not, please have a professional home care company provide a caregiver to go with your parent, for all the reasons mentioned here. I will be going back for a second surgery and overnight admission next week, at the same hospital, and you can be sure that I’ll have someone going to stay with me in the room overnight again, to be my advocate and helper.
By the way, I am NOT someone who is a big critic of the health care system. In fact, I grew up in a doctor’s family and I believe that we have the best health care system in the world. I know from experience, though, that it is always a good idea to have someone go with you as your advocate, helper and observer/witness when you are going to be incapacitated in a medical care setting (or any other setting, for that matter.)
We welcome the opportunity to help you and your loved ones within our GCM service area, which is North San Diego County. You can find out more about us by visiting our website at A Servant’s Heart Senior Care.
