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Nursing Home Question?
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 252623" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>I firmly beleive phones should be available. But in my experience, they often are not. Part of the reason is, nursing homes are money machines for somebody. I've worked for a journal that was published for nursing homes and private hospitals, so I had to deal with a lot of the organisations associated with this. Many of the people I had to deal with, were NOT in this business out of altruism.</p><p></p><p>At the same time, my mother was in a nursing home and miserable. No phone, if we wanted to talk to her we had to call the nurses station and hope they had the time to take the phone to her, and tat she was available (and not being showered, or fed or whatever). She couldn't make any calls herself. As a result, she felt like a prisoner. She wasn't well-cared for, at every turn this place was doing its best to freeze out family. One or other of my siblings would turn up to visit and often have to wait, sometimes for hours. She got pneumonia in just a few weeks and went to the local hospital, where she had a phone and we could telephone her and she could call us. She madde the choice to die there rather than go back. After she died, I began complaint proceedings and was NOT surprised to have the nursing home state (what apperared to be their blanket response), "Nobody ever came to visit her, so how would you know what it was like for her?"</p><p>I was able to point out, "I can understand why you believed this - you went out of your way to discourage visitors. But in her case, you failed to keep us out, so we DID see."</p><p></p><p>I'm not saying that this particular nursing home is doing the wrong thing. They are e necessity for a lot of people and can be the best place, and a happy place, for people who have no choice. But they are also open to abuse and do need to be under scrutiny. Not having access to a phone, does make it a lot easier for them to have greater control over their inmates. At least if you have a phone, you can call.</p><p></p><p>I remember a time when I was in hospital and waiting for my doctor to make his daily visit. I was hoping to be let out for the weekend and was fed up waiting for my doctor to arrive. I had repeatedly asked the nurses station to call him, but thye were too busy. So I used the phone beside my bed to call the doctor's secretary and ask her where he was and what time SHE thought he would get around to seeing me. OK, it was a bit naughty, but the phone allowed me to do it. It's not to be encouraged, if patients keep doing that sort of thing AND doctors object, they risk getting their phone privileges removed. It can be one possible reason why they won't allow phones. But it also keeps people on their toes, doing the right thing.</p><p></p><p>In my case - the doctor was OK with it because he knew me well and knew I didn't abuse a privilege.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 252623, member: 1991"] I firmly beleive phones should be available. But in my experience, they often are not. Part of the reason is, nursing homes are money machines for somebody. I've worked for a journal that was published for nursing homes and private hospitals, so I had to deal with a lot of the organisations associated with this. Many of the people I had to deal with, were NOT in this business out of altruism. At the same time, my mother was in a nursing home and miserable. No phone, if we wanted to talk to her we had to call the nurses station and hope they had the time to take the phone to her, and tat she was available (and not being showered, or fed or whatever). She couldn't make any calls herself. As a result, she felt like a prisoner. She wasn't well-cared for, at every turn this place was doing its best to freeze out family. One or other of my siblings would turn up to visit and often have to wait, sometimes for hours. She got pneumonia in just a few weeks and went to the local hospital, where she had a phone and we could telephone her and she could call us. She madde the choice to die there rather than go back. After she died, I began complaint proceedings and was NOT surprised to have the nursing home state (what apperared to be their blanket response), "Nobody ever came to visit her, so how would you know what it was like for her?" I was able to point out, "I can understand why you believed this - you went out of your way to discourage visitors. But in her case, you failed to keep us out, so we DID see." I'm not saying that this particular nursing home is doing the wrong thing. They are e necessity for a lot of people and can be the best place, and a happy place, for people who have no choice. But they are also open to abuse and do need to be under scrutiny. Not having access to a phone, does make it a lot easier for them to have greater control over their inmates. At least if you have a phone, you can call. I remember a time when I was in hospital and waiting for my doctor to make his daily visit. I was hoping to be let out for the weekend and was fed up waiting for my doctor to arrive. I had repeatedly asked the nurses station to call him, but thye were too busy. So I used the phone beside my bed to call the doctor's secretary and ask her where he was and what time SHE thought he would get around to seeing me. OK, it was a bit naughty, but the phone allowed me to do it. It's not to be encouraged, if patients keep doing that sort of thing AND doctors object, they risk getting their phone privileges removed. It can be one possible reason why they won't allow phones. But it also keeps people on their toes, doing the right thing. In my case - the doctor was OK with it because he knew me well and knew I didn't abuse a privilege. Marg [/QUOTE]
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