DaVita Prisoner
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
Posts: 3
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2003 9:49 am Post subject: That Newsletter Again!!!
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Well this month the head nurse hands out the newlsetter. She jokes, "More propaganda!". I wasnt sure if she was joking or serious. But I realized, she's cool and was saying she knows its all proaganda. We have some cool patients at our unit. They probaby told her what propaganda it is and she was confirming our opinion. Let's say a prayer for the nurses and staff who know its proganda, but have to walk on eggshells to protect their jobs. Pray that they'll find a way, as we have been doing, to expose the companies and revolt against their practices.
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patient
Joined: 29 Oct 2002
Posts: 137
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2003 10:57 am Post subject: newsletter
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We need to go into the printing business and sell our services to DaVita, they seem to waste more paper and printing on the same redundant message.
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Lin
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 337
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 1:05 am Post subject: Can top that!
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with the FMC pt. survey I received yet again, yesterday. Of course I'm not filling it out; it's redundant, and is acutally a way for the social worker to ascertain if pts. are mentally stable, but of course no one offers that info.. Lin.
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Patient surveys
Joined: 18 Jul 2003
Posts: 1
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 1:12 am Post subject: How they are done
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The surveys are handed to the patients. They will even help you fill them out. BUt the strange part is that the clinic collects them and then they send them up to your ESRD Network. So they can go through them first and can send only the ones they chose. Game is that if they even hand select 10 lets say, then the Network puts down that the clinics patients are 100% satisfied.
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ptsw
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 24
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 1:39 am Post subject: no way!
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I doubt Networks get the patient satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) surveys that are distributed in units...maybe the corporate entity but not the Networks.
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ESRD Patient Representati
Joined: 18 Jul 2003
Posts: 1
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 5:15 am Post subject: I am on this committee
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as a Patient Rep. There are about seven patients on the committee. We do conferance calls and have meetings in our region. We are often asked by the ESRD Director to do patient surveys. We are asked to gather much information from the patients of our units. <
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>I've asked what is done with the information and am told it is collected to plan improved education and programs for patients. However, I can tell you that I feel the ESRD Committe I am on is a total smokescreen as they collect information, but don't use it in any way I've seen to support and educate patients, or to expose or discipline the units who are giving poor patient care. <
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>As a Patient Rep., I can tell you the patients on the committee totally expose the wrongdoings in their units to the ESRD Director and nothing is done. The manager speaks sympathetically, however, and tells us the corruption has been going on for years, but acts like he is powerless to do anything about it. <
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>At the rate this committee is going, it would take until the next century for any positive result to benefit patients. It is nothing but a smokescreen and if they do anything with the patient surveys it is not for the intended purpose, but to benefit the Network. I joined the committee to be of service to my fellow ESRD patients. This particular network does not serve the patients and is in the business of creating Patient Contracts.
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RedheadedReptile
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
Posts: 69
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 5:23 am Post subject: A big problem with the FMC survey...
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... is that there is no box to check for "don't know!" How in the hell am I supposed to know if my nephrologist is keeping up with the latest findings in kidney disease??? Do they think I can ascertain that in the three minutes she spends with me in the unit while doing rounds?<
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>I was tempted to make my own damned box and check it, but I figured they'd just throw my survey in the trash.
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ptsw
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 24
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 5:46 am Post subject: if it's
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just a smokescreen why are you even on the committee?
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patientwife
Joined: 18 Jul 2003
Posts: 47
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 6:03 am Post subject: SERVICE EVALUATION SURVEYS
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The surveys, while they need not be, are a joke! They are of no benefit to the very people who need the information -- patients, their families and their advocates.<
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>Why are survey results not made public? Why do Networks exclude results from their Annual Reports?<
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>My husband and I have had 2 experiences with the surveys.<
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>In conversation with dialysis facility Director of Nursing on an occasion, I commented about my husband's "unsatisfactory ratings" re services. The DON's response to me was to effect, "Oh, I don't worry about what the patients say. Their illness affect their
ains. I know the quality of service we provide." I was shocked. As I was new to the dialysis world at the time, I asked myself, "Does this mean that (my husband) is losing his mental faculties? And, if he is, why is he then given a survey instrument to complete?" I became my husband's immediate advocate. I had not lost my faculties due to end-stage renal disease.<
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>Still trying to cooperate and involve ourselves in efforts to improve service, my husband completed another survey document at a different dialysis facility. On this occasion, request (under "Comments") was made that patients be provided with results. Of course, it didn't happen.<
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>So, my husband does not complete any more surveys. He finds them useless.
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ESRD NETWORK PATIENT REPR
Joined: 18 Jul 2003
Posts: 1
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 8:27 am Post subject: Why I joined the committee
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As I said previously, to serve my fellow patients. Also, I have given them a fair chance to see if the network really supports patients, or not. I have found my work with my network to be a waste of time. The director and staff have shown no action in behalf of patients after our many committee discussions. <
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>Nothing is reported back to the patient reps on the committee. We are asked what would help patients become motivated, given surveys to personally go over with patients in our units, and then they just sit on the info. gathered and its the same thing the next month. <
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>The subject matter of the meetngs is ridiculous, because the subjects being discussed and the surveys we are asked to take only prove what this network has been doing for 30 plus years....NOTHING! <
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>They shouldn't be asking us for this information. They should already
know it!! What they should be doing is providing us with a myriad of programs to support the patients!!! Thats why I say being a patient rep on the committee is a waste of time and this network committee is a smokescreen. Its just something for them to do in name only..there is no credible action in behalf of patients.
