You should NEVER allow your parents or older loved ones to go to the hospital alone!

Whenever a patient, whether or not the patient is a Senior, is admitted overnight to stay in a hospital, we recommend that someone else stay with them at all times to advocate for them, to be an observer/witness for what takes place, and to be there for them when they need help. This advocate can be anyone who has the time and who care enough to help; when no family or friends are available, we recommend that the patient or family have a professional caregiver stay with the patient.

I recently was admitted for one night at one of our local hospitals following surgery earlier in the day. The surgery went well and I was admitted to a room for a night to recover while they watched me to make sure I was all right. Because we frequently help others navigate the healthcare system, we knew enough to plan for my wife to stay with me, and it was a good thing that she did.

Although I was asleep most of the time, I woke up four times because I had to go to the bathroom. I was told that I should not get up to go to the bathroom without the nurses' assistance, so I tried calling them with the call button. On each occasion, a nurse promised to help and then left. Each time, after waiting an hour for them to come back, my wife assisted me and we did fine. After that, we knew that we could only count on ourselves.

If my wife hadn’t been there, I would have had a terrible night. Instead, I made it through the night with her help and I was discharged the next morning.

Note that this occurred at the best hospital available to us. I wouldn’t have agreed to stay at either of the other two local hospitals, because we some of our elderly clients have been discharged from those hospitals with MRSA infections that they acquired during their stays at those hospitals. These are so-called HAIs, Healthcare-Associated Infections; they are also called nosocomial infections which means infections that are the result of treatment in a hospital that are not secondary results of the patient’s original reason for hospitalization.

If at all possible, you should have family or friends go with your parent when they are admitted to the hospital. If not, please consider having a trustworthy home care company provide a caregiver to go with your parent, for the reasons that I’ve mentioned here. I am scheduled to be admitted for a second operation soon, at the same hospital, and I will definitely have someone go with me to to stay in my room overnight again.

By the way, I am NOT someone who is a big critic of the health care system. In fact, I am very proud to say that my father is a retired family physician and I have a lot of trust in the health care system here in our country. However, very often it is wise to have a person go with you as your advocate, helper and observer/witness when you are going to be incapacitated in a medical care setting (or any other setting, for that matter.)

We welcome the opportunity to help you and your loved ones within our GCM service area, which is North San Diego  County. You can find out more about us by visiting our website at A Servant's Heart Senior Care.