Imagine this:
You are pregnant. You know what it is like to give birth. You are deaf. You ask hospital in advance for a live on site interpreter for the birth. Hospital says no. You sue. You lose because hospital convinces a magistrate that video remote interpreting (VRI) is good enough.
Despite reports in news that they will give you a live interpreter when the birth happens you are forced to have VRI. AND the VRI fails as you are giving birth!
You are having surgery. Then at an important time before surgery, in recovery, or in the hospital room, VRI fails.
You are in the emergency room. Right when it's needed the most, like during treatment or post-treatment instructions and discharge, VRI fails.
There is no backup and the hospital refuses to call for a live interpreter. All attempts at getting the medical people to write are failing.
Just how unacceptable are these scenarios/situations?
According to the National Association of the Deaf position statement on VRI, "If a deaf person uses sign language, hospitals should provide a qualified sign language interpreter..."
Seems there's no consensus in the courts about what "effective communication" actually means.
There's a petition going around related to the case mentioned above:
Bethesda Hospital East: Apologize to Margaret Weiss and Respect Deaf Patients' Needs!
Use this hashtag in social media and Twitter! #DeafChoice
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Friday, July 24, 2015
Monday, April 14, 2014
Hospitals and the Deaf Patient - Part 2
In Part 1, I mention in the last paragraph:
"In this day of high tech and the Internet, there's no excuse for anyone to claim it's difficult to contact the deaf person when there's also email, texting, and instant messaging besides the relay. A little low tech like keeping paper and pen around goes a long way as well."
When I had home health care, rather than use the relay to play phone tag with each other, we used texting. It's worked so well that I could easily refer back to the texts as a reminder or the physical therapist could easily change a session date and time. I'd also be in contact with the supervisor/office manager when it came to signing paperwork and evaluations.
Also after the third surgery, I got emails from the doctor's office a few times telling me of a change in medication dosage. This allowed me to better acknowledge I got the email and would act on the dosage change.
I've kept copies of my xrays from the knee surgeries and from the three hip surgeries, which also makes it easier for me to pass on what I have to another doctor. The hip surgeon's office has a patient portal which allows me to watch for upcoming bill payments, make a payment, make an appointment online, med refills, and other things.
On a more lighthearted note, the physical therapist and I used "markers" from torn postcards to show how many laps I did in the walking exercises (Surgery and the Hips - Part 5). Now and then one of us will lose track of how many laps I've done.
"In this day of high tech and the Internet, there's no excuse for anyone to claim it's difficult to contact the deaf person when there's also email, texting, and instant messaging besides the relay. A little low tech like keeping paper and pen around goes a long way as well."
When I had home health care, rather than use the relay to play phone tag with each other, we used texting. It's worked so well that I could easily refer back to the texts as a reminder or the physical therapist could easily change a session date and time. I'd also be in contact with the supervisor/office manager when it came to signing paperwork and evaluations.
Also after the third surgery, I got emails from the doctor's office a few times telling me of a change in medication dosage. This allowed me to better acknowledge I got the email and would act on the dosage change.
I've kept copies of my xrays from the knee surgeries and from the three hip surgeries, which also makes it easier for me to pass on what I have to another doctor. The hip surgeon's office has a patient portal which allows me to watch for upcoming bill payments, make a payment, make an appointment online, med refills, and other things.
On a more lighthearted note, the physical therapist and I used "markers" from torn postcards to show how many laps I did in the walking exercises (Surgery and the Hips - Part 5). Now and then one of us will lose track of how many laps I've done.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Hospitals and the Deaf Patient
Before I had my knee surgeries, one of the first things I did was go to the hospital where I was to have the first surgery and visit the Patient Relations office. I talked with them about interpreters and passed on to them my surgery date, my surgeon, and how long I will be there. This was probably my most important contact.
From there, let them know to pass on to other medical people that they will be dealing with a deaf person via the relay. In my case, email was used with the Patient Relations contact as well as the surgical scheduler in the surgeon's office. With the scheduler, when it came to surgery dates, I did it in person since there was some paperwork such as patient instructions and hospital information.
While you're doing all this, visit the financial office of the hospital to pass on your medical insurance information if possible. This may save a little time with checking in.
The next important thing to have is an advocate. What this person does is make your medical decisions when you are unable to do so. Filling out an Advanced Directive is the next best thing to do. While the chances for death or complications are small, it still helps to have both advocate and the directives if something arises.
When I went to the rehab facility after the first knee surgery, there were a few problems (More on the Knees and Surgery - Part 3, Part 4). At first, the people didn't believe there was such a thing as the ADA. They had never heard of captioning. When one of the coordinators talked with Jamie about interpreters with me in the room, one of the first things the coordinator said blew my mind.
"We're here to make money."
Is that something you want to hear when you're recovering from surgery and need some rehab and therapy to regain at least some use of what was operated on? I didn't get an interpreter for a few days. The business office had to compliment Jamie when I went there by myself saying that she was a good advocate.
Sure, they're there to earn money to pay the staff and to take care of their patients, but that kind of comment is pretty cold and uncaring. This is when the advocate is most needed since this person can more easily give the facility more information about these unknown things.
When I had inpatient therapy, which included in-home nursing support and physical therapy, we arranged our appointments ahead of time, and I watched for the person. Then we went from there.
With outpatient physical therapy, it's important for the patient and therapist(s) to find a way to communicate, since not all physical therapy offices will be able to provide interpreters. In my case, I made sure the therapists in the office knew about me. One thing that helped was a paper showing all the exercises I would be doing and watching others do their exercises at times if I was to do what they were doing.
Before I had the hip surgery, I had a contact in the first hospital related to a joint class, which told about what to expect pre- and post-surgery. This person was my contact who arranged for the interpreter for pre-surgical testing and the joint class at the second hospital before the first hip surgery.
Fortunately, I didn't need to do as much footwork as I did before since the contact I mentioned above took care of everything and it was also the 2010 legal case mentioned in Surgery and the Hips - Part 1.
Remember that it is the initial communications between the patient and the health provider(s) in the beginning that can go a long way.
In this day of high tech and the Internet, there's no excuse for anyone to claim it's difficult to contact the deaf person when there's also email, texting, and instant messaging besides the relay. A little low tech like keeping paper and pen around goes a long way as well.
Next - Part 2
From there, let them know to pass on to other medical people that they will be dealing with a deaf person via the relay. In my case, email was used with the Patient Relations contact as well as the surgical scheduler in the surgeon's office. With the scheduler, when it came to surgery dates, I did it in person since there was some paperwork such as patient instructions and hospital information.
While you're doing all this, visit the financial office of the hospital to pass on your medical insurance information if possible. This may save a little time with checking in.
The next important thing to have is an advocate. What this person does is make your medical decisions when you are unable to do so. Filling out an Advanced Directive is the next best thing to do. While the chances for death or complications are small, it still helps to have both advocate and the directives if something arises.
When I went to the rehab facility after the first knee surgery, there were a few problems (More on the Knees and Surgery - Part 3, Part 4). At first, the people didn't believe there was such a thing as the ADA. They had never heard of captioning. When one of the coordinators talked with Jamie about interpreters with me in the room, one of the first things the coordinator said blew my mind.
"We're here to make money."
Is that something you want to hear when you're recovering from surgery and need some rehab and therapy to regain at least some use of what was operated on? I didn't get an interpreter for a few days. The business office had to compliment Jamie when I went there by myself saying that she was a good advocate.
Sure, they're there to earn money to pay the staff and to take care of their patients, but that kind of comment is pretty cold and uncaring. This is when the advocate is most needed since this person can more easily give the facility more information about these unknown things.
When I had inpatient therapy, which included in-home nursing support and physical therapy, we arranged our appointments ahead of time, and I watched for the person. Then we went from there.
With outpatient physical therapy, it's important for the patient and therapist(s) to find a way to communicate, since not all physical therapy offices will be able to provide interpreters. In my case, I made sure the therapists in the office knew about me. One thing that helped was a paper showing all the exercises I would be doing and watching others do their exercises at times if I was to do what they were doing.
Before I had the hip surgery, I had a contact in the first hospital related to a joint class, which told about what to expect pre- and post-surgery. This person was my contact who arranged for the interpreter for pre-surgical testing and the joint class at the second hospital before the first hip surgery.
Fortunately, I didn't need to do as much footwork as I did before since the contact I mentioned above took care of everything and it was also the 2010 legal case mentioned in Surgery and the Hips - Part 1.
Remember that it is the initial communications between the patient and the health provider(s) in the beginning that can go a long way.
In this day of high tech and the Internet, there's no excuse for anyone to claim it's difficult to contact the deaf person when there's also email, texting, and instant messaging besides the relay. A little low tech like keeping paper and pen around goes a long way as well.
Next - Part 2
Monday, November 23, 2009
Post-surgery Knee and Bonus
It's been an interesting time since I got here, what with the total knee replacement on the right knee. Let me break this down;
- pre-surgery - I had the same pre-op bed bay, same nurse and anesthesiologist. Same OR as well! Last year, I remember going past the OR room number (7) to the door and that was it. This time, I made it into the OR for a few minutes before I was out.
- recovery room - I don't remember being in it last year, just being in the hall coming from there. I was awake and coherent just long enough to answer a question from Jamie. I was in surgery for 3 hours, compared to 4 last year.
- hospital room - Again, the same people from last year were around including some new people as well as this one nurse nicknamed "the vampire" since she works at night and often draws blood. Wonderful lady... I was only a door or two away from the room I was in last year.
This time, since the muscle contractures weren't as bad on the right knee, I was able to use the CPM (Continuous Pulsing Motion) machine for the first time, going up to 55 degrees. I was able to tolerate it for almost 3 hours. I nearly wore out my physical therapist since the right knee and leg had a bit of strength.
Another big bonus... Since I'm doing much better than last year, I'm not going to a rehab center. I'm heading home and will have some home health care people helping out with things for about a month or two. It took me 3 weeks just to be able to walk from the rehab room to the nurses station nearby and back to the rehab room and walked a little more. This time, I went that far, just a few days after surgery.
This recovery should be a bit easier or a little tougher...
- pre-surgery - I had the same pre-op bed bay, same nurse and anesthesiologist. Same OR as well! Last year, I remember going past the OR room number (7) to the door and that was it. This time, I made it into the OR for a few minutes before I was out.
- recovery room - I don't remember being in it last year, just being in the hall coming from there. I was awake and coherent just long enough to answer a question from Jamie. I was in surgery for 3 hours, compared to 4 last year.
- hospital room - Again, the same people from last year were around including some new people as well as this one nurse nicknamed "the vampire" since she works at night and often draws blood. Wonderful lady... I was only a door or two away from the room I was in last year.
This time, since the muscle contractures weren't as bad on the right knee, I was able to use the CPM (Continuous Pulsing Motion) machine for the first time, going up to 55 degrees. I was able to tolerate it for almost 3 hours. I nearly wore out my physical therapist since the right knee and leg had a bit of strength.
Another big bonus... Since I'm doing much better than last year, I'm not going to a rehab center. I'm heading home and will have some home health care people helping out with things for about a month or two. It took me 3 weeks just to be able to walk from the rehab room to the nurses station nearby and back to the rehab room and walked a little more. This time, I went that far, just a few days after surgery.
This recovery should be a bit easier or a little tougher...
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Technology and Equal Access
Interesting vlog titled We, Deafies have equal access to today's techology. NOT! She has MANY good points, especially when she said that we still have a long way to go in catching up.
I was in the hospital in 2003 for a bad infection and December 2008 for knee surgery. I had the same problem as RLM in the comments when he was trying to use the call button on his hospital bed. I had my hearing aids on/off and I could hear/feel them talk, but that was it. All I could do is tell them I needed them for something. At one DC Metro stop's turnstile near the elevator, when my farecard didn't work a couple times, I had to press the help button. When someone said something, I just said "I'm deaf, I can't understand you."
It shouldn't be too hard to put some sort of notification to note that a patient in a room has a hearing loss and may or may not be able to respond to the patent pressing the call button.
But, technology *CAN* be used to create things to allow someone at the other end to respond. If that's created, one problem that will be faced is those who will abuse and vandalize it.
When it's inclusive of everyone, then we know we've gotten some inroads somewhere. We've got at least some with the TTY phones in airports and other places. But in the meantime, sometimes you gotta depend on other people.
Technology, indeed. It can be good and a curse at the same time...
I was in the hospital in 2003 for a bad infection and December 2008 for knee surgery. I had the same problem as RLM in the comments when he was trying to use the call button on his hospital bed. I had my hearing aids on/off and I could hear/feel them talk, but that was it. All I could do is tell them I needed them for something. At one DC Metro stop's turnstile near the elevator, when my farecard didn't work a couple times, I had to press the help button. When someone said something, I just said "I'm deaf, I can't understand you."
It shouldn't be too hard to put some sort of notification to note that a patient in a room has a hearing loss and may or may not be able to respond to the patent pressing the call button.
But, technology *CAN* be used to create things to allow someone at the other end to respond. If that's created, one problem that will be faced is those who will abuse and vandalize it.
When it's inclusive of everyone, then we know we've gotten some inroads somewhere. We've got at least some with the TTY phones in airports and other places. But in the meantime, sometimes you gotta depend on other people.
Technology, indeed. It can be good and a curse at the same time...
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