Make Medicine Better

I recently spent several weeks in a BJC institution receiving a bone marrow transplant. The preparation and transplant itself went very well, and I was well looked-after. Beginning from the day of transplant, however, I was almost entirely ignored by the entire medical staff except for the bare minimum of contact.

I would call for pain relief, and on more than one occasion HOURS would pass (and several more calls) before a nurse would show up. I had to ask multiple times to have bed linens changed. Entire shifts would pass with only the receptionist coming in my room to introduce herself. The doctor would occasionally skip my room entirely on his rounds. At one point when he did stop in and I was doing poorly, he said, “You can’t die on my shift. I don’t care if you do on someone else’s shift, but not mine.” Joke or not, that’s a wildly inappropriate statement for someone to whom death is a very real possibility.

I was released long before I was in stable condition – I was still in pain, still exhibiting symptoms of graft-versus-host, and still entirely unable to eat anything but applesauce. Nonetheless, the staff decided they were done with me and sent me home. Two days later, I had to be readmitted. Thankfully, I was sent to a different floor, where the staff behaved much more professionally and responsibly.

The difference between the two floors was astounding. It proved that there ARE competent and capable nurses and doctors working in the BJC system – unfortunately, they were not the ones looking after me at the time I needed them most.

It seems to me that the best way to Make Medicine Better is to ensure the quality of service by its providers, a lesson that could be well learned by the bone marrow transplant floor.