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9-10-2002 - 11:48
Shrinking Violet? Hardly! I heard a great feisty old lady story today from one of my nursing co-workers and thought I would share. 
Violet (not her real name) is 92, and legally blind. She tried living in a retirement community, but said �she couldn�t stand to be around all those old people� so she moved back into a luxury apartment. With the help of a meals-on-wheels program, she is able to live on her own. Recently, Violet fell and fractured a vertebrae. She was admitted to a local �for profit� hospital that has a good reputation, unless you ask the nurses who work there�and trust me, boys and girls, always ask the nurses�if you can find one. I don�t know if you understand how Medicare and DRGs works, but simply put, every diagnosis has a certain limit on amount of days that Medicare will finance. A cracked vertrbrae will gets to stay 5 days. If you go home in 4 days, the hospital makes money. Go home in 6 or more, the hospital loses money. How you are doing, what your doctor wants or where you are going once you hit the hospital curb has NOTHING to do with it. It�s all figured out by codes and computers. Yeah, I know this system sucks. Work to change it if you can. Our senior citizens deserve better and someday, they are going to be us! A man comes into Violet�s rooms, only identifying himself by saying that he is �from Medicare� He tells Violet that she needs to get up and start trying to walk right now, because she can only stay 5 days. Violet is 92, but she is no fool. Medicare doesn�t have representatives in the hospital. She tells the guy that her doctor wants her on complete bedrest at least until morning, and if he doesn�t believe it, asks her nurse. Vi ain�t budging! The man gets more persistent. He grabs her arm and offers to help get her out of bed. Violet starts yelling for the nurse, the nurse manager, the patient advocate, her doctor and security. At this point, my co-worker and her student arrive in the room. Violet demands that the man show his ID to the nurse and then asks the nurse what it says. The jerk doesn�t work for Medicare, he works for the hospital. Freaking bean counters. He tries to slip out of the room and Vi yells, �Sit yourself down,young man, I am not through with you� The patient advocate arrives and she is trying to gloss everything over as a ' misunderstanding', but Vi ain�t having it. The bean counter claims that Violet is �confused� The nurse produces the Doctor�s order for complete bedrest. The bean counter is whining that he doesn�t have to stay and talk to �angry women�. Vi tell him to �cut the crap and next time you go into a patient�s room, don�t you dare misrepresent yourself, Sonny�. His only come back is that he doesn�t have to stay and talk to foul-mouthed women, he turns to leave and walks right into Vi�s doctor. The Doctor is not a happy camper! You go Vi! And the moral to the story: Not all old people are senile; your nurse is your best friend and don�t leave your loved ones in the hospital unattended
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