We’ve all had experiences trying to accomplish a task that is way too hard — and one reason it’s so difficult is because the environment is not designed to help a person function and work efficiently. Many of us have watched our aging parents grow frustrated, especially in medical settings, where equipment and furniture is … Continue reading
Filed under senior parent hospitalization …
The Patient’s Checklist by Elizabeth Bailey
A patient checklist — what a terrific idea! Checklists are “in” right now. John’s Hopkins physician, Dr. Peter Pronovost focuses on checklists to reduce mistakes, reduce hospital-acquired infections, and improve patient safety in hospitals. Writer-physician Atul Gawande publicized checklists even more widely in his book, The Checklist Manifesto, describing more examples about how physicians can make … Continue reading
Jane Gross on NPR’s Tell Me More
If you missed the Michel Martin’s Tell Me More on Monday, January 23, 2012, head over to the program’s website to hear Jane Gross talk about her book, A Bittersweet Season: Caring For Our Aging Parents and Ourselves. Her conversation covered a broad range of aging parent-adult child topics including Medicare, financial problems, end-of life issues, … Continue reading
Hospitals in Cleveland Introduce ER’s Focused on Senior Care
This Cleveland.com article, University Hospital’s Bedford, Richmond ERs Focus on Senior Care, shares important changes at yet another medical center, changes that focus on the needs of seniors when they go a hospital’s emergency facility. How wonderful that the first senior-friendly emergency room, at Holy Cross Hospital in suburban Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC … Continue reading
Senior Parent Hospitalization, Report #6: Learning About Cardiac Procedures and Surgeries
My dad’s recent heart attack turned out to be treatable — still serious, but not as much as first surmised. In the process of various diagnostic physician visits, he (and we) discussed a number of procedures with his doctors including a possible cardiac catheterization. We watched this slide show, A Visual Guide to Heart Disease, at … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 