Guest
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:42 am Post subject: Re: PATIENT DISMISSED...PASTED HERE!
[quote:ffcce88d19="Arlene"]Posted: 06 Jun 2006 06:11 Post subject: Help, Being denied Diaylsis at Clinics
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To Whom It May Concern:
I am an African-American who is HIV positive, who has been doing Hemo-diaylsis for about eight months. My problem is that I?m being deprived of services of a clinic or facility, because I?m not liked, or my personality is sturdy. However, I don?t think it?s aggressive, I think my personality is assertive. Meaning that I will not be allowed to be treated with contempt or stereotypical biases. I was kicked out of Davita in Thornton, for taking the bandages off my needles, in which I just thought I was helping out, but I was automatically rejected from the facility, and I begged for forgiveness, and asked for another chance and they said no, I would no longer be allowed to dialysis at the clinic. Not knowing what to do I looked on the internet and found Fresenius. Meanwhile, I was receiving my dialysis through the emergency room, at sanatorium such as, St. Josephs, Presbyterian St. Lukes and Rose. In all these hospitals, they all went by the Potassium level in order to get me dialyzed, meaning if it was low, the hospital would not give you dialysis for that day, resulting in you coming back, sicker, due to the hospital?s protocol. Plus, I have to wait five to six hours in order to get dialyzed, but you have to get a room so the hospital will get paid. I personally think this is ridiculous. If I come to a facility every week to get dialyzed you would think that they find a way or a clinic for me to attend to, but that is not the case instead they give me a lecture about how I need to find a treatment center and when I explain I?ve been listed as a ?trouble maker? and way to opinionated. So clinics will not take me, as a result, I get dialysis from the hospitals, if a clinic would take me and treat me ?well? I?ll be more than glad to attend a clinic, but most clinics are way to aggressive and just plain have no compassion for clients as well as employees. Plus, if you have a grievance with a unit it will and can be used against you, how do you think I got the label trouble maker?
Fresenius was a nice facility, but the employees were to busy singing and dancing to really be concerned with the patients. Plus, the Program Manager, Linda was always insidious when dealing with me. If I asked her to wash her hands she would, become cynical and explain she did wash her hands, yet I see a blue ink mark on her hand and she became red in the face. Also, she decided one day she was going to put the needles in my arm, so of course in a clinic I had no choice and I allowed her to put the needles in my arm. Well, as a result of Linda not paying attention and laughing with her fellow employee?s she infiltrated my arm. So as a result, I couldn?t dialysis that day or for the next coming week. So of course I made a grievance, because I felt that it was done on purpose and not done in a professional manner. After, making the complaint against the program manager I was labeled a trouble maker. Everyday I came to dialysis I was given new regulations and new obligations which if I think about it, that were small irrelevant rules, just to put her at ease, I abided to this simplistic request. However, it just seemed the more I followed this rules, the more she disrespected me or even worst give me a lecture, on my personality, that I was ?angry? and I would constantly explain I wasn?t angry. However, I think because I listened to rap music, I was considered to be ?angry?. So I would be asked every visit to talk to Linda in the facility to be talked to about my persona. Plus, she told me I could do three hours and I would be fine, then after all the rules she gave me she said ?legally? she can not allow me to do three hours, which at the same time I was signing a release form explaining that I was aware I was doing three hours. So as a result, of the strain I left the facility, thinking I rather go through the hospital then go through this facility. So I left and not thinking I would return. Yet, I get a call two days after the episode and the social worker is trying to persuade me back into the facility. What?s interesting is that now, I wanted to return back to the facility, thinking I?m willing to compromise if the company is willing to meet me half way, but I was told that they didn?t want me back, or rather I couldn?t come back to the facility.
At present, I go through the emergency of the hospital in order to get dialysis, I realize it?s expensive and time consuming and more than 91% of African-Americans who dialysis supposedly go through the emergency of the hospital to get dialyzed. In which I think is another racist form to oppress Black Americans. So in going to hospital they as well give me a hard time, they want me to get a chronic unit, but the problem is, no unit will take me, so my options with treatment is limited. Yet, the control, or the illusion is the control is in the chronic units, yet these units are unsanitary, the technicians are abrasive, rude, rough, Kurt, confrontational. What?s even more fascinating is I?m the man who is HIV positive dealing with E.S.R.D. (Kidney Failure). There is no compassion or empathy for us as clients, and I?m most definitely not the only one who has problems with units in Colorado. Many others have ?major? problems with facilities, but don?t say anything, because it most definitely will be used against you, in either treatment, or how that technician treats you. Even the way the doctor treats you. So one who is a patient must be ?passive? and silent and to express that the needles in your arm hurt in anyway makes the technician feel scared or makes them nervous. Also, many of the technicians ill inform patients, resulting in confusion on the patient?s part. Also, the discrimination in units is rapid and swift although African-Americans make up a large percentage of Kidney failure, you rarely see any African-Americans if one in a chronic unit.
For Instance, as stated before I go through the hospital?s emergency room to get dialysis. Anyway, I met a young African-American women, whom was a patient at Davita in Littleton, they kicked her out as well with no warning no write up no protocol what?s so ever, and as a result for six months she?s been going through the emergency three times a week. Although, she said she didn?t mind, I really felt her pain, due to the fact I was in the same position, and her doctor is Mrs. Susan Babcock, who is nice but really doesn?t have any pull to get an individual into a clinic. She?s just a primary doctor who writes out prescriptions to patients, but to have her wait six months for a unit means Mrs. Babcock can?t really do anything if a unit decides they will or won?t allow you to get treatment. Finally, when I go the hospital?s they sometimes will not dialysis me because me blood work is good. For example, if my potassium is 6 or above they will dialysis me, even if my creatinine level is high and my BUN is high they still will not dialysis me. I think that is so ?dumb? if I?ve been coming to the hospital every week with the same diagnose then I should be able to get dialysis without lecture or confrontation. Plus, for the hospital to get paid with dialysis I have to get a room so the hospital will get paid this is, foolish to me because as soon as I get dialysis I feel good, and I don?t need a room, I only ?need? a room when I?m sick, really sick. Lastly, the hospital can be o.k. without the lectures of trying to get another unit, when no unit in Colorado will take me, for I?m non-compliant which means I?m too much of a trouble maker, to much into the details.
Signed,
Disenchanted Patient[/quote:ffcce88d19]
Another adult who hasn't grasped the fact that if you are confrontational and a pain in the arse, those who you abuse can often turn around and make your life difficult.
The hospital is not a chronic unit, period. The hospital has guidelines for acute dialysis. One is that you must be admitted. If you are not admitted, no dialysis. If there is no reason to admit you (and BUN and creatnine are not reasons to admit), then you won't recieve dialysis at the hospital.
As for your contention that 91% of blacks receive their dialysis at the hospital...well, that's a ridiculous contention.
You are an angry troublemaker and you seem to be stating that it is your "right" to be so and still receive a service that is a "privelege". Your contentions of racism are preposterous as I know that Thornton is a black area and no doubt, the clinic employees are primarily black. Of course, the race card must be played as a condition of complaining about anything that goes wrong in the course of the day. I understand that.
Your dissertation is one long, whiny sermon about you being treated badly because you behave badly. How dare anyone retaliate for being your personal punching bag. I do acute dialysis in Chicagoland and I will refer your story to the Thornton facility. Perhaps then, we can hear BOTH sides of the story and not just the side that these saps at DEO want us to hear. I see clowns like you all the time. Your lifespan won't be long if you keep it up. Drop the angry black routine and BEHAVE. This ain't the million man march and these people don't have to
tolerate your nonsense.
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Guest
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:57 am Post subject:
I find it fairly bizarre that DEO would publish a letter which mentions individuals by name, yet does not contact these people for their side of the story.
Of course this comment is a "loaded" one. DEO has no interest in their side of the story. Doesn't want to hear it. Fairness doesn't matter per Arlene.
If you have a tale to tell about the dialysis industry, make it up. Nothing will be checked out. Reputations can be tainted as long as it's the employees or the industry being slammed.
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Guest
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:02 am Post subject:
If you all think that this guys side of the story is all there is to it...well, think again. My guess is that he is nasty, abusive, and physically confrontational. I will contact Thornton and find out. The acute folks at Roseland and Rush have my sympathy.
Why did he have to mention that he was black? What does that have to do with the story? What does his perception of the plight of the black American dialysis patient have to do with him being dismissed? Well, I guess a little dose of imaginary discrimination make the story even more interesting to the hand wringers at DEO.
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Guest
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:24 am Post subject:
My error regarding Chicago area. Thornton is a Chicago suburb and all the hospitals mentioned are all hospitals in Chicago as well. My apologies.
If this guy thinks no black folk dialyze in the chronic unit, he needs to get out of Colorado. The hospital folk are no doubt tired of seeing this guy. No doubt he is abusive to them as well. The difference is that hospital dialysis staff don't have to and generally will not tolerate the shenanigans that are tolerated in the chronic unit.
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 226
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:27 am Post subject:
My, such a hard attitude ? and so easy with people who might have a harder time fighting back. As for your contention that dialysis is a ?privilege?, I suppose you consider food and water a privilege too ? and the last time I looked it was considered cruel and unusual punishment to deny either. I do hope we see a response from the other side to see what horrendous crime must have been committed to warrant what amounts to capital punishment: dared to ask a question, looked cross-eyed at the clinic manager, maybe hogged the TV, or was chewing gum.
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Guest
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:50 am Post subject:
Typical plugger response. How do you use your keyboard with your head in the sand? Of course you know that this guys story is only half the story and that it's far more likely that his errors were a little more eggregious than chewing gum. Maybe though, you take him and his version completely at his word. After all, you also bought the "sunglasses" story hook, line, and sinker.
Food and water have been around for a few years. Cavemen obtained it without asking their neighbors to pay for it. Dialysis is relatively new. Hard to believe that a 40 year old medical modality has now become a "right" in the same vein as food and water. I won't argue this with you. You're a social lib who believes that healthcare on the taxpayer dime like fire and police service is a "right". Not all agree with that.
If you think that because dialysis is a lifesaving medical treatment that any and all behavior must be tolerated in a group setting without fear of consequence...well then, I'm glad you aren't calling the shots. In an orderly society, there must be consequences for poor behavior. It's the same reason that many of us don't rob banks for a living.
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