Safety and Hospitalization Concerns

Talk to the hospital supervisor (possibly the Hospitalist) at your hospital and bring documentation that your dad has had the three strokes, the short term memory loss and the fact that he panics without a family member at his side in the hospital. Perhaps his PCP will give you a short report. Find the appropriate person in charge at the hospital (it will be different at each hospital) and ask for a meeting. Bring a copy of the documentation and and ask for help before your dad has to go to the hospital. Keep all copies of your dad's documentation, reports, medical records in a file. Also whomever you meet with at the hospital to have it arranged so one of you can stay with him in his room, have this person give you a signed release and business card. One copy of that release should go to your dad's PCP. You never know when staff changes so you'll need proof that this was granted in case the same staff person is not there if your dad should need to be hospitalized.

From the editor: Both our Safety and Elder Law experts say that you need to contact a local attorney if you feel that the original rehabilitation facility did not adequately care for your mom.

Hospital care has become hazardous to the patient’s health. According to the Fifth Annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study, 2008, nearly a quarter of a million deaths in hospitals nationwide were found to be preventable.
All of us will at some point have to deal with our own hospitalization or the hospitalization of a loved one—a parent, spouse, relative or good friend, and cope with the realities of what is happening in hospitals today. In a nutshell, there is a nationwide, drastic nursing shortage. Insurance companies require physicians to see too many patients in too little time. Many hospitals are under financial duress because of uninsured patients, patients who don’t pay their bills and demands for new, expensive technology. Because of the baby boomer generation, there are more older patients with multiple medical issues that require hospitalization. Every physician and nurse I interviewed from my book, Critical Conditions, said this: "Hospital care is in crisis. You must have someone with a patient at all times. Loved ones are patients’ best advocates."


There is something everyone can do immediately to improve the chances of surviving a hospital stay. There must always be someone—a family member or good friend—to act as a sentinel to oversee hospital care in an effort to prevent medical errors. The hospitalized patient cannot do this for himself. If you or a loved one has to go into the hospital, the number one priority is to enlist a family member or good friend to act as an advocate caregiver to oversee and monitor the hospital medical care.
Among the most important steps the advocate can take is to show up during doctor’s rounds. Ask the primary nurses what time the doctors do rounds and simply be present in the patient’s room. Have your notebook handy. Prepare questions ahead of time about the patient’s diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. Ask the doctor how he/she wants to be contacted. Write down phone numbers, office hours, time of hospital rounds, email address and how that doctor wants to be contacted. Provide him/her with your phone numbers and the best times to reach you. If you can’t be available during rounds or if you live out of town, call the patient’s primary nurse and ask that a note be placed in the patient’s chart for the physician to call you. Leave your phone numbers and times available. You can also call the nurses’ station during rounds and ask to speak to the physician. If you still have trouble reaching the doctor, fax a note to the physician’s office asking for him/her to call you—note phone numbers and times you are available.