Anna’s hospital allowed only one vaccinated visitor for non-Covid patients per day and only from 10 am to 5 pm. While both parents had flown in to support their adult daughter, as a family, they decided that her mom would be the designated daily visitor and point person with the nurses and doctors. In my…
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a brutal toll across our entire healthcare system. Our attention is understandably focused on resource and staff shortages at hospitals. Safe home discharges for all patients, Covid and non-Covid, are likewise affected by these same disruptions to medical supplies and home care providers, from skilled nursing services and therapists to…
Leaving the hospital for home is always a stressful time. It is especially so now. Effective discharge planning is even more critical during the pandemic when hospitals have been overwhelmed. Restrictive or zero visitation policies mean all patients, both Covid and non-Covid, are alone in the hospital as their families struggle to connect with overburdened…
Hospital delirium, in pre-pandemic times, was the most common complicationamong hospitalized patients ages 65 with upwards of 30% for those on a regularmedical ward and up to 50% for those having a surgical procedure. That’s staggering.Patients who suffer from hospital delirium have worse outcomes, longer hospitalizationsand more complicated recoveries. Studies have shown that families at…
Winter is coming. As Dr. Fauci has warned – we all need to prepare for a “world of hurt” over the coming months. Nowhere is this more starkly felt then in the hospital – by patients, both Covid and non-Covid and the frontline staff who care for them. To add to the hurt, all hospital…
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