I hate to say it, but if she has good insurance, that makes a big difference in the care she's going to get. If she's got good insurance, the family can call in specialists, they don't have to wait for the hospital to do it. I hope her main physician isn't a resident just flailing around. Based on what I've heard so far she needs an infectious disease specialist, maybe needs to see an immunologist, an hematologist, I don't know what else. Having been in the hospital for a week, her records are going to total a couple hundred pages already, and no doctor on earth that I am aware of is going to look at everything. So whoever is in charge needs to be on top of her condition.
Moving her may not be a good idea, because whoever will treat her in the new hospital would be starting from scratch. There is already a body of knowledge in her hospital about her condition. Usually when patients are moved, it's at the request of the treating physician, and the care continues or overlaps in the new hospital.
I am familiar with a case where the son of a patient, for very good reasons, moved his mother from a less good hospital (Woodbridge) to a better one (Fairfax) but they did it on the weekend, and by the time everyone was up to speed at Fairfax, she had suffered an aneurism that was not noticed for several days until a neuro consult could be arranged, and then it was too late. Part of the problem in that case was that the people were tourists, and did not know any doctors in this area.
I think who the doctors are is much more important that which hospital, unless the hospital is really bad. But the technical proficiency of the lab and the pathology department are also critical now due to the lack of diagnosis.
THEY DON'T HAVE TO ACCEPT THE DOCTORS THE HOSPITAL GIVES THEM!!!!! |
