CPAP in hospital - frustration!

[eeckel]

I'm in the hospital for a few days (ruptured appendix). I brought my home unit to make it easier on everyone involved. A family member set it up and filled the humidifier. All I need is for someone to hand me my mask when I'm ready to sleep. My nurses won't do it because CPAP is respiratoroy therapy turf. RT is not doing it because there is no skill involved and they can't bill for their time.

Anyone else ever have these problems?

[Stormynights]

Talk to your doctor and get him to write an order for the nurse to hand you your mask. How frustrating. Hope you get better soon.

[Sheriff Buford]

Put the machine on the bedstand next to your bed, along with your mask. It should be easy to reach. Where is it?

Sheriff

[49er]

I'm in the hospital for a few days (ruptured appendix). I brought my home unit to make it easier on everyone involved. A family member set it up and filled the humidifier. All I need is for someone to hand me my mask when I'm ready to sleep. My nurses won't do it because CPAP is respiratoroy therapy turf. RT is not doing it because there is no skill involved and they can't bill for their time.

Anyone else ever have these problems?

You also might ask that someone contact a patient's rep's office because you are greatly concerned about your health and need this issue to get settled immediately.

49er

[BlackSpinner]

I'm in the hospital for a few days (ruptured appendix). I brought my home unit to make it easier on everyone involved. A family member set it up and filled the humidifier. All I need is for someone to hand me my mask when I'm ready to sleep. My nurses won't do it because CPAP is respiratoroy therapy turf. RT is not doing it because there is no skill involved and they can't bill for their time.

Anyone else ever have these problems?

You also might ask that someone contact a patient's rep's office because you are greatly concerned about your health and need this issue to get settled immediately.

49er

And keep going up the chain of command until you get resolution.

[old one]

Hope things go better for you with your emergency visit. Not being an emerency surgery I had everything set up at hospital for cpap....even the recovery room nurse put my mask on me while I was still out....nurse was shown how to do it prior to surgery. I had everything set up within reach bedside.

Emergency surgery is no excuse for the staff to be uncooperative....go right to the top with complaint of poor care...and continue to complain about poor care after your home...go public so no one else has to suffer.


Get well soon!

[Drowsy Dancer]

I'm in the hospital for a few days (ruptured appendix). I brought my home unit to make it easier on everyone involved. A family member set it up and filled the humidifier. All I need is for someone to hand me my mask when I'm ready to sleep. My nurses won't do it because CPAP is respiratoroy therapy turf. RT is not doing it because there is no skill involved and they can't bill for their time.

Anyone else ever have these problems?

And if you asked the nurse to hand you a glass of water would s/he decline because s/he's not a dietician?

And if you asked the nurse to hand you your medication would s/he decline because s/he's not a pharmacist?

Contact the patient care rep. Contact your doctor. This is outrageous.

[Bons]

Call the patient care advocate, and keep calling. Or even contact the vice president for operations.

My husband was recently hospitalized and they allowed him to put on his own mask and turn on the machine. Their only requirement was that he be on oxygen the entire stay, so that they would not have to keep worrying about him dozing off without hooking to the apap first. Not entirely unreasonable, I guess. He was in for cardiac issues.

One of my parish members was recently in the other local hospital for knee replacement, and she had her cpap as well. That a hospital did not keep her on oxygen, but they did require her to have an O2 sensor on at all times, and a cardiac monitor, also concerned about liability if she dozed off sans cpap.

[Janknitz]

What you were dealing with here is a lack of orders. Nurses can do nothing without orders, and since a CPAP is medical treatment, the order is required.

BUT, the nurse fell down on the job. It was the nurse's responsibility to contact the doctor to get the order, rather than letting you suffer the deleterious consequences of apnea, especially post anesthesia and surgery. And unless or until that order came in, there should have been extra measures added to your care plan to monitor your O2 levels as you slept and provide support if you had apneas with desaturations.

I think this warrants a written complaint. This nurse failed to do her duty. She failed to do everything to assess your needs and make sure that your safety was provided for. And she tried to pass it off to respiratory therapy, which also did not have an order to treat you.

Nurses are intimidated by unfamiliar equipment and we cannot expect a nurse to understand how to use every variation of CPAP and mask. But that is no excuse for failing to make sure that your needs were met so that you were protected from apnea while you slept. She should have contacted your doctor immediately AND listened to your directions and concern.

[eeckel]

I put it on the bedside table next to me. Hopefully the table won't get pushed around to put it out of reach. Will follow by reporting the problem to powers that be when I feel a bit better.

Thanks for the support and suggestions.

[chunkyfrog]

Call the front desk, and demand a face-to face with hospital LEGAL DEPARTMENT!
--before bedtime, of course!

[hobbs]

Not all nurses, but some are as dumb as a rock and the rocks cry when I say that. My wife had hip replacement in February at one of the better hospitals in Southern California and a nurse about killed her. She takes blood pressure meds and after surgery her B/P was very low, so what does the nurse do AFTER checking her B/P? She reads the chart and sees that she takes B/P pills and gives her one!

[eeckel]

I described the incidence to my nurse tonight when I went to bed. Shortly after are the supervisor was at my bedside writing up the nurse.

[avi123]

You and/or your Doc probably have not notified the hospital that you're bringing a CPAP with you b/c they probably have a legal procedure for doing so. What if you use the CPAP on your own without the hospital OK and die from it. Should the hospital assume responsibility? RTs at the Surgical ICU are familiar with CPAPs. But apparently it was not arranged to notify them.

[chunkyfrog]

avi; the OP had a ruptured appendix.
--or do you plan all your emergencies beforehand?
My mistake. I apologize.