"Nursing Home Circus" a post written in 2011. With Preface, so you can understand. These are true events, I experienced.

Preface

From 2010-2016 I worked as a CNA... that is Certified Nursing Assistant in a very
Low budget, low quality Nursing Home in Marietta Ga. For the most part, the
Staff tried to do what we were trained to do to the best of our abilities, but
The "Big Business Corporate Owners" didn't care about us, and especially
Didn't care about the Residents of the facility, except as 'warm bodies' to
enable the company to draw funds from Medicare/Medicaid, and some
Pay from Private insurance.
We were understaffed, (because the good people were leaving, a new hire
if they were quality, stayed for a few days, sized up the situation, and left)
The Company would never hire enough to adequately care for the resident
Population, resulting in a HORRENDOUS work load for those of us who
Stayed.
One CNA, to feed, change diapers, turn periodically, bathe 13-18 patients.
It was horrible.
Here is one account from my time at this facility.
For the most part, I assisted in the monthly 'Weights', done by two CNA's
(every resident of the facility had to have their weight, BP and Temp recorded officially once a month) and I did "Escorts" when a patient had to go outside the facility to a Dr appointment, someone FROM STAFF had to go along, for insurance purposes, and to ensure the safety of the Protected Health Information (HIPPA).

Nursing Home Circus

a day in the madhouse.

August 2, 2011 at 6:43pm
I attended a circus today, a circus at the Nursing Home.

I went to pick up on the second day of this months weights and Vitals but at 8 AM, a patient was waiting to leave with transport to a Dr. appt. and needed an escort. They pulled me in to do this, and I was glad to go as I need the hours.

The Transport guys were already going out the door when I came down the hall (I had been involved doing the weights), so I hurriedly looked at the calendar for the info on where/what/when we were supposed to be going to. All that was there was the name of the nearby Hospital, it's address and the Dr. Name and phone #.

I called the # and the recording said that the Dr's office didn't open 'till 9 AM:
It was now 8:10 AM.

For some reason the transport guys had put my patient, (normally in a wheelchair) on a stretcher, so I'm thinking, "we're going to be waiting around a Dr. waiting room for nearly an hour with this guy on a stretcher".
But then I thought 'no, the transport guys can't wait and they will take the stretcher'.
But no, that can't be right...

When we got to the hosp. there was NO DR. BY THAT NAME on duty at the hospital.
We went next door to the Dr. office bldg., adjacent to the Hospital.
No one by that name.
Finally back at the Hosp. the Admissions Office looked the Dr's name up, and gave me the address (which was right around the corner) and even confirmed that they had an appointment for this patient.

So we went to that Dr's Office, unloaded my patient to wait for the office to open(we were able to get into the waiting room) and transport left.
30 min. later the receptionist came in, amazed that anyone was there so early.
She checked and yes, my patient had an appointment, but was supposed to be:
BACK AT THE HOSP. Outpatient SURGERY CENTER for PRE-OP!!!

The Barrett Center

Outpatient Surgery Center

It was only 100 yrd. away but uphill and across the street.
My Patient can't walk that far on level ground, let alone uphill.
We didn't have a wheelchair for him.

TWO HOURS and a multitude of phone calls later, we got to pre-op.
I first had to call the Nursing Home, who called the Transport Company, who called me, everyone asking "Can't you just get him across the street and up the hill?"
Risk (to my patient) and Liability (for me AND the Nursing Home) dictated that there was NO WAY for me to get him across the street and up the hill.

The transport company (who, according to the original contract for this appointment, had been paid to take us to the address, and pick us up to return us) would have had to pick us up, take us BACK to the Nursing Home, then bring us BACK to the Hosp(making it a whole other appointment and double pay for them), agreed to make it look like all this had happened on paper (and of course they were PAID for two round trips), and instead, came, picked us up from the Dr,'s ofc, and took us 100 yds up the hill to the surgical center.
Bureaucracy at its finest
We got him to his Pre-op, and a week later I went with him for his surgery.

If the scheduler at the Nursing Home had just put "Pre-op" SOMEWHERE in the paperwork, on the calendar.... ANYWHERE I would have known to go to the Barrett center where they do surgery.
An entire day wasted, running around trying to find where we were supposed to be.

At least I got paid, and everything turned out okay.
THAT day.

Apr 7, 2013

So...here it is, one year and eight months later. The CNA who was the lead on the monthly "weights", decided that, because I had called out sick twice in 3 yrs, I was unreliable and had me removed from that monthly job, which REALLY hurt my income. I had observed this CNA kick the feet of patients who were not cooperating, wouldn't get up and out of their wheelchair to get on the scales, I'd seen her strike bedridden patients who were lashing out because they didn't want to be disturbed, but...
she was the one who got me removed off that duty.
Go figure.

Now, all I do is the escort duty.
I went today, as on every time I an scheduled to escort someone to a Dr. and made sure that my Patient was ready.
The Appointment was at 10:15.
At 9:45, when there was no sign of transport, I called South East Trans (this is the umbrella company who schedules ALL medicaid/medicare transport) to see where my ride was.

They had no ride scheduled for this patient.

I then went to the scheduler at the Nursing Home, told her all this, she checked, and saw confirmation that she HAD indeed sent the info TO SE Trans on Mar 28 (2013), but all this was to no avail; the appointment had to be rescheduled, and I came home with only just over 2.5 hrs pay to show for my efforts.