Patient Empowerment Guide and Journal
The Thirty-Day Planner, Organizer, and Journal for Your In-patient Visit
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Segment from Keep Your Eyes Open: Make sure your room has been terminally cleaned. You should insist on it! A terminally cleaned room means that every surface has been wiped down with a disinfectant to help kill bacteria. It also means that a new privacy curtain has been hung. Health care providers open and close these curtains with dirty gloves after cleaning blood, urine, and feces from patients. Wound dressings that are saturated with life threatening bacteria are changed and then the curtains are opened with contaminated gloves. The curtains are not changed on a routine basis after every patient.
Please ask your health care providers and guests to wash their hands for at least twenty seconds with soap and water. Do not retouch the handle with bare hands. This is the best way to prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria.
A checklist is to be completed for any procedure or surgery. This checklist identifies that it is the correct patient, procedure, and site. This is to be done at the bedside immediately before the procedure. Many times physicians are in a rush and this checklist is not completed until after the procedure is over and the nurse is chasing them down for a signature. Insist that the checklist be completed, the correct site is marked, and you are having the correct procedure before and any sedation is administered.Make sure your health care providers are turning, suctioning, checking for incontinence, and cleaning the patients mouth every two hours. This will help reduce infection and decrease the risk of pressure ulcers.
Ask about one time use or disposable blood pressure cuffs and oxygen saturation probes. These are often recycled and should not be reused by for profit facilities. This equipment may not read accurately giving false information. If they are reused you should ask how you are being charged for a disposable item that others have used. This is a way for the facility to cut cost and charge you for something that should be discarded. If your heart is being monitored look at the connections. These are often not cleaned well from patient to patient.Segment from Nosocomial infections: Nosocomial infections are infections acquired during your hospital stay or at a nursing home. Most people have the perception that hospitals are sterile. In reality, most hospitals are not clean or sterile. Approximately two million nosocomial infections are reported annually. I can tell you most nosocomial infections do not get reported and the number of infections is much greater. A list of the most common nosocomials and how they are acquired are provided.
A thirty-day journal is included that records every activity that the physician or nurse performs. It is simplified to be a check-mark and fill in the blank type of document. This will give you a written legal journal to refer to for your inpatient visit. This journal will let health care providers know you are informed and will be monitoring every aspect of your care.
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About the Book
Have you or your loved ones ever been a patient in the hospital or a nursing home? Have you found yourself agreeing with whatever test or procedure the physician orders only to feel frustrated due to lack of understanding of the purpose for the test? Have you felt as if your healthcare providers are speaking a different language?
Patient Empowerment Guide and Journal provides you with the tools that you will need to understand the various tests, scans, procedures, and medical language that is used by your healthcare providers. It includes a written legal journal of what, when, and how activities should be performed. This guide will assist you in reducing the possibility of a hospital-acquired infection, give you a greater understanding of the tests and procedures that are being prescribed for you, and possibly protect your life.
Did you know that the agency that accredits hospitals typically inform the facilities that they are coming for a visit in advance? This allows administrators to have time to staff the units appropriately and clean the areas for inspection. It has been my observation that this agency rarely makes surprise visits. Hospitals spend billions of dollars lobbying our government to keep healthcare from being regulated. This means no one is watching how they take care of you or your loved one. This guide will help inform you of how to protect yourself from negligence, inflated billing, and possible wrongful death.
You need to protect yourself by always asking questions and documenting everything. Take charge of your healthcare. Remember that without you, they would be out of business. You do have choices. If you do not approve of the care that is being provided inform the chief nursing officer, case manager, and social worker. Do not settle for substandard care.
About the Author
Johnilynn Wunderlich, RN, CLNC, has been a Registered Nurse for thirteen years. She has work experience in Neurological-Trauma Intensive Care, Special Needs Pediatrics, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, and Medical-Surgical Intensive Care. She became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant in 2004. She currently resides in Indiana with her family.