As a prepper, you should know to never let your guard down – even in a place that's supposed to be safe. Here are a few hospital secrets to keep in mind during your next stay.
5 Hospital Secrets Your Doctor Isn't Telling You
When you think of dangerous environments that are a threat to your survival, the hospital is probably on of the last places that comes to mind. After all, the hospital is where you go to get better…right? Knowing the risks and dangers is the first step to ensuring your survival. Here are a few things to keep in mind during your next hospital stay.
1. Medical records aren't confidential.
You may have been told that your records are confidential between you and your doctor, but that's not exactly true. Your records may be seen by other doctors, specialists, insurers, care providers, billing companies and pharmacy benefit managers.
Some hospitals have up to 12 patients per nurse. This means that you may be waiting a while after pressing the call button. Some patients have waited up to 18 minutes for a response.
3. Medical mix-ups are more common than you'd think.
A Johns Hopkins study found that hospitals hide medicinal mix-ups from patients 98% of the time.
4. July is the month of doom.
July is the month when medical students graduate and begin their residencies. As a result, it is the most dangerous month to visit the hospital, as deaths due to hospital errors spike by 10%.
5. Doctors use Google too.
Have you ever searched your symptoms on Google or WebMD? Turns out your doctor is doing the same. There are so many things that can go wrong with our bodies, no doctor can remember all of them. Doctors used to rely on medical books to fill in the gaps; now, they're turning to online resources more and more.
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Do you have a hospital horror story to share? Do you have any of your own hospital safety tips? Sound off in the comments below!
I was working as a contract nurse for a hospital in Mesquite, Texas. Most of the staff nurses employees there were from India. I did chart checks on the shifts that so would work. I would find doctors orders from up to four days old that were never implemented. Many of the orders were for antibiotics that should have been started upon receiving the orders. Nothing was ever done by management about the staff nurses failing to implement the orders.
I was working as a contract nurse for a hospital in Mesquite, Texas. Most of the staff nurses employed there were from India. I did chart checks on the shifts that I would work. I would find doctors orders from up to four days old that were never implemented. Many of the orders were for antibiotics that should have been started upon receiving the orders. Nothing was ever done by management about the staff nurses failing to implement the orders.
So what does the nurses being from India have to do with your story?
I do not think it has much to do with race, creed, or color. I have worked with very good staff from India and other countries. Sometimes accents can be a problem if you are not used to them
I had to have major abdominal surgery in a hospital some 40 miles from here. I knew the hospital well, and had had a previous surgery there some years before, which went fine, no trouble at all. I have no idea what happened, but my was allowed to be with me in the ICU because she was a nurse. I of course knew nothing of this; I was still pretty out of it. My sister informed me of exactly what occurred. Here is my horror story.
As I lay in the bed, a nurse came in to change the dressing on my incision. . She came right to my bed, without washing her hands at all or putting on gloves, and prepared to remove the first dressing. My sister asked point-blank, “Aren’t you going to wash your hands first?” The nurse looked put out that she’d been caught, and replied, rather off-handed, “Oh. Yeah.” She did, then came back and began to take off the dressing. A couple minutes later, another nurse poked her head in the door and told mine that somebody or other wanted to speak to her. (Here’s the heart of my horror story!) My nurse just turned and walked on out, leaving me lying there with my gown flung back, my incision exposed, and the used dressing hanging off it by the tape! My sister was furious—as she had a perfect right to be. She washed her hands, gingerly took the ends of the tape and very carefully laid the dressing back over my surgery site. Then she gently covered me back up with the blanket, as stayed by my side till the incompetent nurse came back to finish the bandage change. Then she lit into her with both barrels! She told me she also informed the head nurse of the situation. My nurse had no business even touching a patient fresh out of surgery, with such blatant slipshod attention to the care of the incision. I don’t know what became of her, but I’m hoping she got fired. She could have caused a serious infection by changing a surgical dressing with her unwashed, ungloved hands, or some other complication by leaving my incision exposed and just walking away. I’m grateful to my sister, and to the dear Lord for preventing anything from happening. I pray that she never did that to anybody else, that I was the only one!
It is a good idea for an alert, competent family member to stay with you if you must be in a hospital, esp. if you will have surgery or other invasive procedures.
add more looky-lous to persons who see your records. minimally trained staff move charts and records in hospitals that aren’t fully computerized. if there is a paper chart on your hospital door or at the foot of the bed, visitors, passers-by, and that bubble-gum chewing teen volunteer may peak at them.
As a 30 yr plus healthcare worker, in direct patient care, I would strongly advise; 1. Anything you are asked to sign, read completely and make sure you understand everything. 2. If able, either you or a loved one keep a log of everything that happens. Write it down immediately. Remember, though, recordings either audio, visual or both are usually highly restricted. 3. Make sure you know what medications are being given and if there are contraindications in giving them with other meds. You might be shocked to find out that most physicians don’t know these things. The pharmacy is ‘supposed’ to catch this, but… 4. Get an itemized bill, even for what the insurance pays for. You might be surprised at some of the things that are charged. I’m a male and I was once charged for a D & C. Look it up if you’re not sure of what it is. 5. Last, but not least…remember that your nurse or care-provider has a number of patients to care for…not just ‘you’. So…take a number…you are next.