I would consider individual flat screen monitors in the dialysis unit a hospital amenity. One day we might have to pay for this out of pocket just to keep our hospitals from going under. Perhaps one day we'll have a menu of options, with everything from cable television and a pet therapy dog to a pedicurist or massage therapist. For now, it's just the dialysis spa/
You're all heart. It just makes me want to rupture my kidneys right now so I can partake in such opulent pleasure all day long three times a week on a renal diet.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this blog since last October, I really want to know where you work so that I can encourage everyone I care about to avoid that hospital.
ReplyDeletePointing out that medically inessential amenities adds to everyone's hospital bill, especially those who are self-pay, since they lack the bargaining power of big insurance companies, is not necessarily heartless.
ReplyDeleteDuring my year-long stint in the ED there was plenty of nursie grumbling when they installed nice flat screens in all the rooms. I'll admit, it did help cut down on all those "how much longer" questions. Then again, forgoing those tvs in favor of adequate staff so were all weren't doing the work of three people would have helped even more, but it wouldn't have looked nearly as good.
seems like a lot of negativity from the other commenters lately.
ReplyDeleteif you truly believe we should be paying for patients to watch tv while they receive dialysis, why not just one tv for everyone? an individual tv for every dialysis patient?
the medical care that is needed is the dialysis itself. the ability to watch tv is a bonus.
and if we're routinely overpaying for the walkers, i can only imagine what we're (over)paying for the flat screen lcd tv's!
the hospitel at its finest.
I don't know...
ReplyDeleteHey, even give them laptops so they can surf the Internet while they are stuck in there for hours on end.
I have a problem with those who abuse the system, but anything to ease the burden for anyone really sick, I am all for it.
Being on hemodialysis is tough. Sitting in that chair for 3-5 hours three or more times a week takes courage. NO one would trade places with a dialysis patient. I say, their experience in the chair should be as comfortable as possible and if having a personal TV helps, that's what they should have. These TVs get a lot of use; they are dollars well spent for our patients. Think about it before you bark.
ReplyDelete"NO one would trade places with a dialysis patient."
ReplyDeleteAnd a lot of us are living so that we don't have to. These are all of our tax dollars hard at work.
I also would like to know where you work, because I'd definitely send my family members to you. It's obvious you know your stuff, and the fact that you call it like you see it means I'd be happy to have you. It's the whiners and CONSUMERS that hate it when you call them out.
@ 12:02: Great comment.
ReplyDeleteLook people, dialysis is EXPENSIVE. In fact, many older end-stage renal failure patients (or end-stage anything) who have socialized healthcare are not even eligible for it, much less their very own flat-screen TV.
There is no reason why the unit can't have a common TV for the patients. Or is TV becoming one of those ubiquitous things such as "universal healthcare?"
I was a proud holder of an Organ Donor Drivers License until I started having to deal with Dialysis patients. What a bunch of entitled Ghouls, made a special trip Post-Call to get a new Drivers License. And I've donated Bone Marrow, go figure.
ReplyDelete1 of my ER (ED, if you're Whitecoat, hehe) Doctor friends reads the blogs, but refuses to get his own account, so he asked me to comment the following: "Frank is so right, most of them are a bunch of ghouls. This TV thing is bullshit. What, they don't know how to read, or play their gameboy? How about do some homework while they're sitting there, that's what I always did. I wonder how much all that cost, a waste of my hard earned money." He also said to tell all the hateful commenters that he was a dialysis patient when he was a kid, before he got his new kidney. Then quite a few years later, he went into failure, so he got back on it. Now he's the happy owner of yet another new kidney....said to tell yall "shove it folks, those of you that bitch and whine obviously do not know a thing about the med field."
ReplyDeleteWhy can't the dialysis patients pay for there own TV's or laptops? When did it become my responsiblity to not only pay for their health care, but also their entertainment? Perhaps we should pay for all of the patients on peritoneal dialysis (done at home for those who read this blog and don't know) to have flat screen TV's at home so that they aren't bored during PD. Why stop at TV's? Why not put in X-Boxes and Wii's? Why not have a live Broadway style show every 3 hours? The point is that patients have personal responsibilities and it is not our duty as a society to provide everything to everyone under the rupric of "health care." If we do there won't be dollars left for true health care - things like antibiotics, which actually make people better.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would love to have Happy at my hospital any day.
At my Med School's hospital patients had to pay for TV. There was even a volunteer who did nothing but go around and turn TVs on and off all day. Of course, during my own several day hospitalization for a broken arm, I had no TV, couldn't afford it. Nah..just kidding, was too zonked out on Morphine, plus it cut down on the visitors.
ReplyDeleteTelevision during hemodialysis? Those arrogant a-holes are better off using those 3 hours to contemplate their impending renal failure.
ReplyDeleteHonestly though, I can think of wayyyy bigger government waste than this.
To the one comment- these patients are in renal failure now, that is why they are on dialysis. These people have to show up 3 days a week, have large bore needles stuck in their arm each time and sit there for 3-4 hrs, or they cannot live. I think they should be made as comfortable as possible.
ReplyDeletePublic Hospitals her,e you pay for your own t.v. Or you watch the one in the lounge with the other patients. Its kind of a fight between age ranges though and the geriatrics always get their own way with the channels:)
ReplyDeleteI cant believe the callous attitude of what people have written on here. What the general impression is that dialysis people are all self indulgent fools who have self induced disease through lifestyle?
What about kids in kidney failure? Did they cause there disease.
Kidney failure caused by cancer, by uncontrolled diabetes, infections, C.K.D are they all to blame.
I believe in Karma and those who mock others about something they haven't experienced themselves are fools and the self righteous ones.
I have spend 9 years on and off the renal/urology ward. It isn't pretty, I don't see any prima donnas, yeah some have self induced failure through drug abuse, but more often than not the ones on dialysis have end stage kidney disease that is genetic/trauma/infection based.
If watching T.V means the patient is distracted from pain, nausea, side effects, depression then Im all for it. You try lugging a T.V up to the Hospital 3 times a week then lugging it back out again, after throwing up or week from dialysis.
I personally always take my lap top into hospital and watch movies, never use the call bells(unless emergency), have to demand meds and I keep to myself, alas not everyone can afford a laptop.
God forbid if I ever have to end up on dialysis, I don't want to be labeled by a bunch of Aholes on a public domain.
cool blog friends!
ReplyDelete