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Impending discharge

Posted By ConfusedinSale

"Impending discharge"

About: Sale Hospital

(as a relative),

Recently a family member of mine was admitted after having a potentially life changing diagnosis. They felt their care was exceptional, and I agree as the team in the Emergency Department was wonderful, the clinical team in the Medical Ward were caring and helpful, the food was tasty and well presented and Food Services and Cleaning staff were helpful, happy and professional.

After a false alarm on discharge time, I was saddened to hear that my family member sat on the edge of their bed until 9 pm dressed ready to go, and when they didn’t hear anything from medical staff, they made the decisions to just go to bed. I was disappointed for my family member. Why would no one tell them what was happening?

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Responses

Response from Mandy Pusmucans, Director of Nursing, Sale, Central Gippsland Health 4 years ago
Mandy Pusmucans
Director of Nursing, Sale,
Central Gippsland Health

Submitted on 24/07/2019 at 5:11 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 25/07/2019 at 8:56 AM

picture of Mandy Pusmucans

Dear ConfusedinSale,

Thank you for posting your story and thank you for meeting with me today. I am sorry that your family member didn’t get the reassurance they needed which caused them some distress. This is not what we aspire to and we have let your family member down.

It is important that we communicate well with patients and their families. We have worked hard to deliver care that places the person at the centre – which includes excellent communication.

In order to learn from your family member’s experience, the Nurse Unit Manager will use this story as a reflection, particularly with the staff who were working at the time.

She will also continue to promote the use of communication boards – these boards are at the end of each patient’s bed. The intention is that patients and their family members can write questions or request information so that each time staff attend the patient, they can provide the information.

I hope this provides some comfort that your story has led to reflection and improvement.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you wish to discuss this further, on either 5143 8512 or at mandy.pusmucans@cghs.com.au.

Yours sincerely

Mandy

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Update posted by ConfusedinSale (a relative)

Mandy,

Thank you for your considered and thoughtful response.

I very much appreciate your time and the effort that is being put into understanding our experience.

Using the whiteboards for questions sounds like a great idea, one which we had not considered. But will use in the future

Please pass on my thanks to your incredibly passionate and caring team.

I'm happy to hear that our experience will be used for reflection.

Thank you for taking the time to hear our feedback.

Response from Sue Rowley, Nurse Unit Manager, Medical Ward, Central Gippsland Health 4 years ago
Sue Rowley
Nurse Unit Manager, Medical Ward,
Central Gippsland Health

Submitted on 25/07/2019 at 5:05 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 26/07/2019 at 8:54 AM

Dear ConfusedinSale,

We appreciate your feedback and apologise for any distress caused to your family member. I have discussed this with individual staff and as a team and reflected on ways of improving communication including improving use of our communication boards.

I would be very happy to discuss further and provide further reassurance that we are committed to quality improvement in our ward and to improve patient experience whilst with us. My phone is 5143 8710 or email at Sue.Rowley@cghs.com.au

Kind Regards
Sue

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