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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.
So, at the moment, with a lot of families still locked out of ICU for visiting because of COVID and the pandemic. A lot of families are telling us that they can’t get hold of the doctors. The doctors are calling them when they are busy, and it’s very difficult to get updates from doctors in general, or even from nurses, because they all seem to be busy. They don’t seem to accommodate the times when you are available. So, here’s a couple of tips on how to manage that going forward.
The first tip is, make a complaint. Make a complaint often to the hospital CEO, because it often doesn’t get filtered through on a department level. But it often does get filtered through if you complain to someone like the Director of Nursing, or the Chief Nurse Executive, or to the hospital CEO, or hospital director, general manager, whatever that title is. Go right to the top, make a complaint. Then, say look, you, as a patient’s relative have not been heard about your concerns and you need to make meetings over the phone that work for you and not for the doctors.
That’s number one, change the reality and don’t give up if it doesn’t happen at the first go because I often hear, “Oh, well we tried that”. Well, you’ve given up after one time and you can’t just give up after one time. You got to have some critique. You got to have some persistence.
Number two, get access to medical records. You have a right to do so. Assuming you are the medical Power of Attorney, you are the decision maker, whilst your loved one is in a coma, is in ICU can’t make decisions for themselves, you have the right to get access to medical records. And just get them because then we can help you review medical records, but we can also help you write letters to hospital executives because we’ve done it many, many times successfully and writing letters for our clients that give them results.
And number three, just ask for a meeting in person. Just say that, “Look, we’re coming in tomorrow at three o’clock”. They can often facilitate that away from the ICU. If you do ask for a meeting, make sure you’ve got your agenda jotted down. If they ask for a meeting, make sure they’ve got a written agenda for you. So, you’re not going in their blind because again, that’s when we can help you the most.
The most we understand about your loved one’s situation, the more we can help you get the outcomes and results that you want, need, and most of all deserve. Because if you listen to the negative talk of the intensive care teams, it’ll drive you up the wall quite frankly. We can give you perspective here at intensivecarehotline.com.
After having worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries, I can share all of my experience with you, and I can share proven approaches that give clients results and outcomes.
So that is my quick tip for today.
If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Go and call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].
Also, like this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates for families in intensive care, comment below what questions you have or insights or what you want to see next and click the notification bell.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.