Who else knows? 3/11
Hennesys Disla
Founder/CEO ArmHug | ArmHug.com | supplying kits for nurses & phlebotomists
Ok, so I have a plan today. Not sure if I can see Jenny RN in the patient room but I can see the hot pink stethoscope she swings around her neck all the time on the chair closest to the patient door a few feet away.
"Jenny RN your daughter's here!" A nurse sings loudly.
What? I half spun searching for the high shriek voice."You have grown so much and look at how beautiful you are." She fans her folder at me and winks.
I am totally confused.
Jenny RN sticks her head out of the room in disbelief. She fans her hands at me to come over quickly. I speed walk to the room. I stop at the door and wash my hands with the animated foam sanitation box and grab four purple gloves. Just in case. I like to be extra careful not to touch anything. I also double up on gloves on each hand. I have seen broken gloves especially on the index finger - it's no joke my ultimate fear.
"So Sorry, about that now they think everyone that comes in here is my daughter. I talk alot about her sometimes. Can you hold this?"
I lay my hand out and she plops a fresh urine cup in my hand.
EEEP! I am dying inside.
I can barely breathe right now. I am practically sweating. My palms feel like they are melting. There is nothing in it I thought. Just calm down. I can't take my eyes off of it. So gross.
"Thank you dear." She tucks the cup away in what looks like a narrow ziploc bag and seals it by running her fingers over the top twice to ensure it's sealed. She plops it on the bedside table.
My shoulders relax. Tension released. That was so stressful and weird. oh wow it's over.
I sink into the nearest chair and look out the window at the New York skyline. It reminds me why Jenny RN is so awesome, she can do that without squealing.
Thank you for all you do, Jenny RN; I smiled.
"That reminds me actually. I should call my own daughter; I have left her a note every morning this week." Jenny RN says embarrassed.
"It's these work shifts they are beating me to the core here. I want to see her in the mornings but I can't be late for work and she hasn't been doing all that well in school either. It's my fault since I am barely home to help her with her homework." Jenny RN stops, her eyes widen noticing that she was ranting.
She quickly changes the subject.
Today, I have already seen three cases all too similar. A women asking for medications that we know she has, I mean look at this. I slowly approach the screen. It's called EPIC, it's an electronic record. Take note future student nurses. Everyone is identified by a number and it looks like the doctors put in a list of medications electronically. This is progress I thought.
Jenny RN continues.. "The only issue is she is requesting more medications, so two things I can think of - she isn't taking them or someone wrote this in error...
"Check with the pharmacy if she picked them up." I interrupted.
"I wish that was already an option here. It sort of is. They can have it transferred to any pharmacy to their liking. So it's hard to track which pharmacy" Jenny RN replied.
Hmm..I thought quickly. "Check her address and find the closest one. I also see a number one next to the word daughter, maybe we can as her?"
This software is great I thought but it needs help. Take note software developers and pharmacists. Any chance you can build a system to track inventory publicly and track via location...
"Ah yes! Ask her daughter!" Jenny RN pounded the mouse on the desk with excitement.
"She may have come alone but she did tell me she wasn't the only one in the family with Type 2 Diabetes. It is genetic. Her insurance is in check she has it. So that shouldn't be an issue. No complaints from here either - a refill is due every few months but she is here 1 month earlier and an overdose is highly unlikely seeing as the number of milligrams is super small tied to number of pills she has left...no harm there.."
I zoned out again.
I am just thinking about how much our family knows about our disease history. How much we know about ourselves and sometimes not even realizing how much we really know. If only we can take all that information, every last detail and give it to our providers that would be like gold.
Think about how many times we talk about ourselves. How we are feeling? How we talk to others about drugs to alleviate the pain. We even share what kinds of drugs we are taking. Have taken and my favorite allergies, anyone? How many times do you hear people say this after they sneeze?
We measure everything without even realizing it; it is natural.
If we can pass that information to our providers and seamlessly add this to our record. We could avoid guessing. Making up scenarios or hunting down patients. It's almost as if we could build are own medical record in the future and the trained physician can comment and track it. I would be happy to dump my brain in my medical record because it has absorbed everything. Building a body network, better - a large brain network can be a lifesaver and a timesaver..
Written by: Hennesys Disla | Founder Purple Inc.
This is based on true events and all the names of the healthcare personnel have been changed for their protection.