Re: Discussing nutrition with a BG of 392 (WAS: Re: new member/newly

[Guest guest]

>

each one (or a small group of hospitals - 2

>or 3) is a corporation and is directed by a board of directors, and run by

>paper

>pushers and the accounting department.

Hey, I resemble that remark! I'm a finance department paper pusher in an

American for-profit hospital, and have previously done the same in a

non-profit hospital. While we do have to look at the bottom line (harder

than the nursing staff tends to do because their priorities are different)

we want very much to make the clinicians able to do what they need to do

with the best equipment and supplies we possible can. The non-profit I

worked for ran 10% of their bottom line in charity care every year, before

bad debt write-offs.

>

><warning: rant> My husband's 90 yr old grandmother has been in and out of

>the

>hospital for 4 months (mostly in), and she ran out of her inhaler

>medications

>(ventolin and pulmicort). A doctor handed her a prescription, however the

>hospital did not have a pharmacy available to her.

>

>She called a local drug store who delivers. They told her that they

>couldn't

>deliver medication into the hospital. Apparently it is up to the patient's

>family to fulfill this service! (Perhaps we've been spoiled in the past,

>but I

>am appalled at this). Do the hospitals not provide needed medications

>anymore?

Perfectly valid rant. However, the hospital pharmacy is there to provide

meds to be used while at the hospital. If the doctor gave her a

prescription, it was likely (here, anyway) for meds to be used after she

left the hospital, which the hospital pharmacy is not responsible for. Some

American hospitals will do a months outpatient meds on a charity case, but

not many. I'm not sure what the rules are about the outside pharmacy

delivering to the hospital, but it doesn't surprise me that they wouldn't

come. What if she had a reaction to the meds they brought? The liability

issues for both the hospital and the pharmacy could be frightening. So, the

answer to your question, at least in American hospitals that I'm familiar

with, is no. Just like going to the doctor's office and getting a

prescription, you can't go to the hospital and have it filled.

I hope his grandmother is doing better now.

Robin G.

The untrue never is; the true never isn't.

Krishna

________________________________________________________________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com