Today is August 1st, a civic holiday (not a stat day). And yes, those of us who work at Eldercare Home Health are working. This includes front line careproviders, the Registered Nurse Case Managers, the Bookkeeper, the Administrative Assistant and me, the President, all working to provide quality senior care, 24/7.
You may find it surprising to know, however, that many people in a hospital or facility setting, who have care and other responsibilities, are not at work today. Many of these same people are also not available to their patients on weekends – any weekend.
Last week I was contacted by a family whose father suffered a broken hip. He underwent surgery and was transferred to a rehabilitation setting. The transfer occurred on Thursday. When the family found out that no therapist would be available on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, to work with their father, they took matters into their own hands and hired a private physiotherapist to provide care on each of these three days. They could not bear for their father to sit around idly for three days and wait for the therapy he so badly needed in order to resume his life of independence. They were astonished to find that the hospital operated in this manner and that this practice was commonplace.
I’ve never understood this organization of care services myself. If a person is in an acute care setting and it has been deemed that they would benefit from therapy services, why are the therapists not scheduled, on a rotating basis, to work on each of the seven days of the week?
We already have examples of this kind of scheduling in an acute care setting. That is how nurses work and dietary staff. Nobody works every weekend, but everybody works some weekends.
If it is important and necessary that a person be in an acute care facility, it is important and necessary that they receive the best care services each day that they are there.
By not scheduling therapy on a weekend, we are literally taking 5 steps forward and 2 steps back every single week!!
