Saturday, June 19, 2010

Wednesday

I was asked to fill in for a co-worker this week since I would get overtime & I'm nothing if not money-hungry. Of course, this happened to be overnight shifts, but once I worked them they weren't that bad. In fact, if I could JUST work the midnight-8am shift, I would be perfectly content.

On Wednesday (shift 1) I had to take a client to the hospital. We have referral sheets that they have to give the receptionist saying they can't be given narcotics because they're in rehab. I dropped him off, parked, & went in to make sure he was ok. Things didn't seem right so after he got called back into triage I asked the receptionist if he gave her the referral sheet. Which she said he didn't. Great.

4 1/2 hours pass & I haven't heard jack from him so I went back to the hospital to check. The ER doesn't know where he is. Shit. I start to panic & call Love Chunks, who tells me to double check with them if he could be anywhere. I figured with HIPAA laws they couldn't tell me, but apparently since I work at a rehab I'm privy to such information. I remembered that I had his face-sheet (a sheet with his basic info that would allow the nurses to search for him in the computer system) so they were quickly able to find him. It wasn't visiting hours so I got the hospital phone number, his bed number, & called his nurse to give him the message that we knew he was there.

And I was told I did a good job by Love Chunks. Holla!

4 comments:

Rebecca J-G said...

Hmmm....so I wonder, did he manage to score some narcotics before the referral sheet was produced? I can't imagine having to go to the hospital and NOT getting drugs!! That's the best part of ER> poor, poor addict. That's what he gets for being a glutton, I guess.

Andrew said...

He hasn't been discharged yet so I don't know what ended up happening. He should be back today.

Rebecca J-G said...

You make me feel so mean...I make a flippant remark, and you are so serious. Hmm....guess I need to think more carefully before posting. All I could think about when you wrote this was last August when I went to ER for kidney stones. The morphine was wonderful....:)

Andrew said...

Don't feel bad. I'm just really tired so I'm coming across more serious than I mean to.

Demerol is my savior.