Thursday, June 5, 2008

Hey Doctors! Pay attention to real life.

Without an "order" we can't even give a patient a cough drop. You'd be stunned and amazed at how many residents catch a cold who can't get any relief because there's not an order for cold medication.

EVERYONE GETS COLDS.

There's one making the rounds at the nursing home now. I've got it, several residents have it and the staff is passing it around, too. All orders for nursing home residents should include medication that can be taken in case of: head/chest colds, nausea/vomiting, indigestion, diarrhea and constipation. Sometimes, a couple doses of cough medicine is all a person needs to get through a cold. It shouldn't require a call or a trip to the doctor to get something that they could pick up at Wal-Mart if they were able to go themselves.

I hope when I get old, I have a doctor with a little foresight. I also hope my doctor will prescribe Jack Daniels when I need it. We have some residents with an order for medicinal alcohol. I need to find out who their physicians are. Someday, this could become very important.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazingly simple, it would seem. But it's not. And the cough syrup would have to come from the facility pharmacy at considerable cost.

They really should let CNA's manage some of these things. It's crazy the way it is set up now.

K. Tree said...

Maybe this should be a nursing diagnosis type of deal then. If we had guidelines as to what types of OTC medications the residents could have in case of mild, acute illness, the RN's could just make the call.

As far as cost goes, I admit to being a complete noob and unaware of how much we pay for, say, Robitussin. Surely we get some kind of discount for bulk packaging? I imagine when I find out, I'll be astonished.