I am the BIDMC employee that wrote the original email to Paul about "switching sides". My mother died a few weeks ago, and today I went to see my mother's favorite nurses to give her a bracelet that I had given to my mother during one of her hospital stays to "brighten up her hospital jonnie." It was a very emotional moment for me, but she was the person that I thought of every time I looked at that bracelet. This is the nurse had been with us since her diagnosis and had made a poster for my mother to "fight hard" while she was on vacation. She was the nurse who helped move my mother off of her bed sore when her nurse that day said she needed to finish her lunch (truly the minority at BIDMC). This is who I think of when I recollect the people who took care of my mother.
All I can say, is that after a two month stay in a long term care facility, BIDMC is doing a phenomenal job, and their dedication to caring for patients and trying to get better every day at it cannot be challenged. The same issues exist throughout our health care system, but the difference is that BIDMC leadership cares. My mother's long term care facility was for-profit, and although the individual nurses and aides tried very hard to care for her, the resources just did not exist. I compared her nurses to flight attendants as they walked up and down with their medication carts distributing drugs. They had no time to be nurses. In addition, we did not receive any hospice assistance until three days prior to my mother's passing and this was because a family friend knew a hospice nurse; had I requested hospice care, my mother would have been transferred from covered under Medicare to not being covered at all, other than a hospice consultation to the family. What is right about that?
My mother died in peace. I know she is in a better place. This experience had been extremely eye opening for me. I continue (from my first day at BIDMC) to be proud to work here, but will always strive for communication, communication, communication.
