The whole adventure started yesterday morning with a call
from our school principal. She informed
us that a student in our school had a case of chicken pox. This was the second case in two weeks. With Russell being immune-compromised this is
an issue. Fortunately, this was not
Russell’s day to be at school. And he
had not been at school since last Wednesday.
Unlikely that he had been exposed.
Good news.
I proceeded to make the call I don’t enjoy making. I called Russell’s Cardiology clinic to let
them know about the situation. I get the
impression they are more protective of Russell than we are. I guess that is why we love them. I gave them as much information as I
could. They agreed that Russell’s odds
of being exposed to the Chicken Pox was not likely but with a second case being
reported in the school they were concerned that the virus was “in the community.” They made a compelling case that we should
take some preventative action. They
consulted with Infectious Diseases who agreed.
We were given two clear options.
We could take an oral medication for about 10 days which would give him
some immunity for the 10 days he is on the med or we could come into the
hospital and take an IV medication that would protect Russell for about a
month. The logic was that in about a
month, hopefully the virus would have come and gone through the community and
Russell would no longer be at risk. We
chose to come into the hospital and give up 4 hours of our lives (the time it
would take the IV to run) and try to protect Russell for a month.
Our Cardiologist made arrangements last night with the Emergency
Room to make the necessary arrangements. We would come into
Emerg to start the IV at 8:00 this morning.
Like good parents we packed up this morning and headed to
the hospital. We arrived at the triage desk at Children’s Hospital. Upon hearing the word “chicken pox” we were
immediately taken to an isolation room where we complete the rest of the
registration process. This was a good
start; things went south quickly. We
were then informed that no one knew why we were there and no arrangements had
been made. They were now trying to reach
our cardiologist to figure out a plan.
So awesome.
You have to keep in mind that I am assuming at this point
that we have now entered the ER triage process.
In other words, the ER Doctor cannot see us (by policy) until other more
urgent patients are seen. Russell, to
our knowledge, does not have chicken pox.
The only risk he might present is that he possibly could be
carrying. Because we are in an isolation
room; we pose no risk and there is absolutely no urgency by the hospital to do
anything with us until all other more urgent cases are seen. Is
this irritating and frustrating; yes.
Is the hospital following policy; yes.
After waiting 2 ½ hours we saw the ER Doctor. A quick exam and she ordered the med we
needed. Yes, the med our Doctor had
requested the night before that should have been waiting for us. The med we required is a blood product and
has to be requested from Canadian Blood Services. Just another little wrinkle that slows the
process down. After 4 hours of waiting
my wife was informed that they did not have any medication on hand and they
were now looking for other sources. So,
now it was looking like our trip may have all been a waste of time. At this point I was noticeably irritated.
Shortly after, our nurse contacted my wife again and said
that they had located the medication and that it was not administered by an IV
but by a simple injection. A 3 second
injection! The nurse went on to say that
they were in the process of preparing the injection and that we would be ready
to go in a few minutes.
Don’t get me wrong.
Not having to wait around for an IV to run was fantastic news but what
about all of the other information we were given. This really didn't add up.
We checked the data on the medication (which we requested)
for and it seemed to be the correct thing.
Russell got his medication, we waited for 20 mins and went home. We waited around 5 hours to get a simple
single injection. The frustrating part
to me was that I could find no fault in what we went through. Yes, there was some communication issues but
this is what our health care system calls quality health care. From my point of view if this is an example
of the system working then this simply is not good enough.
From the beginning of the process no one
considers our schedule and the inconvenience to us. I had to take time off work for this. My wife had to use up one of her valued days
off. Russell missed a day of
school. This is never considered when
building these processes.
Patients need to start demanding more and better service. If this is public health care, the public must
speak up and be heard.
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