My Care Home Frustration

My partner and I took a call today at one of our assisted living facilities. We have 6 in our county, 8 in our total response area, and multiple adult foster care homes which are outside of the normal assisted living community. We were sent for low blood pressure, which happens quite frequently and is most often attributed to the med-aids' inability to take an accurate blood pressure. The staff tells me that they found the resident in his bathroom pale, sweaty, weak, and with a very low blood pressure.

My first impression of the patient as he's sitting in his wheelchair is that he has great skin signs and is alert and competent. My partner gets a quick set of vitals, after which I ask the staff "so what's his pressure normally?" I don't know was the immediate answer. I then ask the staff "what's his history?" I don't know, he's only been here four days and we don't know anything about him. Now, I should mention the patient is extremely hard of hearing and I have to communicate by pen and paper. He keeps saying he's been sick, but is non specific and the staff has no idea what he's referring to. His medical paperwork has no information regarding a previous history. At this point I realize I won't be getting anything from the staff or the facility, even though there are three med-aids in the room at this point all with the same blank I don't know expression.

So I take Mr. So-and-so to the hospital and turn him over to the ER nurse who asks me a multitude of questions that I wasn't able to answer because I couldn't get answers from the care staff. It should also be said that I'm on great terms with the ER nurses and they understand my frustrations and don't hold this against me.

It occurs to me that it's these care takers' jobs to know what their patient's conditions are. It's there job to know a medical history and their recent activities. It's there job to be able to give me an answer other than I don't know. Granted the resident was new to the facility... by 4 days. I might be able to forgive this after his first day, but after 4 days I would assume the staff had a clue regarding the patient's medical conditions and history. Given this, I know I wouldn't want my grandmother taken care of by these people.

This is just one more irritating example of the incompetence inherent in the assisted living system.