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I had an infuriating experience with a young child in the hospital, where routine checks were being performed at the worst possible times for his sleep cycles.
by darkerside 7y ago
I had an infuriating experience with a young child in the hospital, where routine checks were being performed at the worst possible times for his sleep cycles. Sleeping is so critical to healing. Could it be that hospitals are being counterproductive, sacrificing effectiveness for efficiency?
- hanniabu 7y agoAll they care about is the bottom line, which is money
- jazoom 7y agoAll it takes is for one child to die overnight and the parents to sue and you can be sure all patients will get their vitals checked regularly. This is how healthcare works. Source: am a doctor and see this kind of thing on small and large scales
- hanniabu 7y agoIsn't this why there's monitors? You can also do a visual checkup without waking up the patient.
- jazoom 7y agoWhat monitor are you thinking of? Not everyone gets telemetry. BP cuffs get very tight and will probably wake you up. You may even wake up if a saturation probe is put on your finger. >You can also do a visual checkup without waking up the patient. You can get respiratory rate visually. What other vital sign can you get without touching the patient? Transdermal temp. maybe (inaccurate).
- namdnay 7y agoBullshit. If that were true, this behavior remains wouldn’t exist in public hospitals in countries with socialised health care. And yet it does
- dang 7y agoGood comment except for the first bit, which you should shorten out, as the guidelines ask: "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."" https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dang 7y agoMaybe so, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here. And please note this guideline: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- reitanqild 7y agoFWIW my experience was totally different less than 9 months ago when I visited the hospital with my youngest and had to stay a few days for what ended up as a minor surgery (but still with anesthesia): I woke up once in the night and saw a shadow with a tiny led light, carefully taking a look at the sleeping child before disappearing just as quitely. (FWIW the nurse was there every night, but this was the only time I observed it.) My daughter slept very well during those days, as did I. IIRC they'd also plan with me in advance to know when the best time would be for checks and blood works, at least it came across as very thoughtful. This was Norway, not one of the major hospitals, so not so relevant for many others except as proof that it isn't like that everywhere in the world.
- isolli 7y agoI couldn't make sense of what you wrote until the last line. From personal experience, and reading several of the accounts here, I believe that hospitals in the US do not respect sleep, almost willfully so.
- eitally 7y agoThis isn't universally true. I'm happy to report that the Cardiac Surgery step-down unit at Boston Children's does a fantastic job working with families to determine the least intrusive modes of nursing care based on their needs & condition.
- isolli 7y agoThanks, that's good to know! The topic was discussed here a few months ago [0]. It's probably difficult to get the data required for a systematic discussion... [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18605709 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18605709