I love knowledgeable doctors

My brother in law is in the hospital with pneumonia.
This afternoon they moved him to the ICU.
I asked the doctor why he was moved. I was told they decided to put him on BiPAP and that required moving him to the ICU.
I asked if it was straight BiPAP or ASV. The doc said he was not familiar with that term and had no idea what it meant.
Later the nurse red the name on the front of the machine. It is a Respironics V60. I looked it up. It is a fancy machine, a chameleon. It can do CPAP, APAP, BiPAP, ASV, NIV and more, With pressure ranges from 4 to 40 depending on the mode. It allows individual settings for IPAP, EPAP, air volume, percent of O2 delivered, timing or a variety of AUTO settings.

I am sure glad we have such knowledgeable doctors, so we can put our life in their hands.

This is only the latest demonstration of the great care.

bwexler wrote:My brother in law is in the hospital with pneumonia.
This afternoon they moved him to the ICU.
I asked the doctor why he was moved. I was told they decided to put him on BiPAP and that required moving him to the ICU.
I asked if it was straight BiPAP or ASV. The doc said he was not familiar with that term and had no idea what it meant.
Later the nurse red the name on the front of the machine. It is a Respironics V60. I looked it up. It is a fancy machine, a chameleon. It can do CPAP, APAP, BiPAP, ASV, NIV and more, With pressure ranges from 4 to 40 depending on the mode. It allows individual settings for IPAP, EPAP, air volume, percent of O2 delivered, timing or a variety of AUTO settings.

I am sure glad we have such knowledgeable doctors, so we can put our life in their hands.

This is only the latest demonstration of the great care.

I'm guessing that in the hospital settings, the doctors rely on the Respiratory Therapists to handle those situations.

Most of the doctors I've had contact with for many years I call "refers" (pronounced reefers)......because they "refer" you to specialists.


Den

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Den I agree with you.
But Saturday night, the ER doc came to me with a long list of meds which we went over one by one in great detail. Than the hospital pharmacist came to me with the refined list which we again went over one by one in detail. Then we were moved upstairs to a private hospital room and I went over a couple specific drugs with the nurse, who told me they were NOT on the list. We fixed it.
Sunday night, NOT on the list again. I talked to the new doc and he corrected it. Later the nurse I spoke with actually had it right, but had changed the dose from two 0.5 mg pills to one 1.0 mg pill, which confused me.

If a patient is incoherent or just not capable of representing himself in front of god, he needs a STRONG advocate to make sure he isn't killed by minor mistakes or lack of communication.

bwexler wrote:Den I agree with you.
But Saturday night, the ER doc came to me with a long list of meds which we went over one by one in great detail. Than the hospital pharmacist came to me with the refined list which we again went over one by one in detail. Then we were moved upstairs to a private hospital room and I went over a couple specific drugs with the nurse, who told me they were NOT on the list. We fixed it.
Sunday night, NOT on the list again. I talked to the new doc and he corrected it. Later the nurse I spoke with actually had it right, but had changed the dose from two 0.5 mg pills to one 1.0 mg pill, which confused me.

If a patient is incoherent or just not capable of representing himself in front of god, he needs a STRONG advocate to make sure he isn't killed by minor mistakes or lack of communication.

I agree with what you are saying.
Your brother in law is very fortunate to have you as his advocate.

bwexler wrote:My brother in law is in the hospital with pneumonia.
This afternoon they moved him to the ICU.
I asked the doctor why he was moved. I was told they decided to put him on BiPAP and that required moving him to the ICU.
I asked if it was straight BiPAP or ASV. The doc said he was not familiar with that term and had no idea what it meant.
Later the nurse red the name on the front of the machine. It is a Respironics V60. I looked it up. It is a fancy machine, a chameleon. It can do CPAP, APAP, BiPAP, ASV, NIV and more, With pressure ranges from 4 to 40 depending on the mode. It allows individual settings for IPAP, EPAP, air volume, percent of O2 delivered, timing or a variety of AUTO settings.

I am sure glad we have such knowledgeable doctors, so we can put our life in their hands.

This is only the latest demonstration of the great care.

" ... I asked if it was straight BiPAP or ASV. The doc said he was not familiar with that term and had no idea what it meant.
Later the nurse ... "

Very funny!

This is very usually the case. Most of the experts are so obsessed, engrossed in our jobs, that we are judged be the "nice", "polite" people, that we are rude, stupid, ignorant, prejudiced, etc.

So much academic evidence has been published over the last several decades, that a good "bedside manner" among practitioners (like I used to be in my junior years), means a poor understanding of the complexities & difficulties of true and accurate medicine. On most common details, other staff members, such as the nurse here in the OP, are more helpful. Now, when I am a patient in hospital, I ask my visitors to find details, just like you did here. Good for you and your initiative.

Doctors, nurses, etc are so busy, so overwhelmed by complexities, time-lines, legal cautions, etc. In my role as "patient" now, it is assumed that myself and my visitors are dumb, ignorant, overly-concerned, legally-dangerous, etc.

CPAP technology, as in this OP here, is changing very rapidly. As you describe to us here, there is probably also a mismatch between the technology and its application. Sometimes the "expert" who set it up was not as expert" as required. If anyone knowledgable is around, I would research the equipment, and check that the running setup is correct.

Often the patient's medical condition changes between the initial setting, and later use. These changes may or may not be recorded in the written notes. These written notes may or may not be read & understood by who-ever is the the rostered staff member. Always, these written records are utdated, so check how old these records are.

Finally, technology is institutionally installed, rather than end-user customized. Any updates to the equipment are usually not applied. Installation manuals are not followed, since it is just standard, traditional, normal operating procedures.

Institutional equipment is carefully controlled by detailed financial factors, rather than being the most appropriate for the end-user. Usually it is chosen from what was available at the time of the original purchase, rather than the best needed now. Often it needs updating, maintenance and-or repair.

Carefully chosen home-owned equipment is best IMHO.