More sad days for Deaconess Gateway Hospital

When you see the name Riley's on the side of a hospital what do you think of? You think that that particular hospital is directly connected with Riley's right? Not in the case of Deaconess Gateway. There is a monthly clinic where real children's hospital doctors come for a day. But everything done in the clinic is totally separate from Gateway. Our intensivist in the PICU at Deaconess Gateway has no idea what has gone on with our kids even at the clinic...no diagnosis', no orders, no nutrition plans, nothing. He is flying blind. The only thing they have to go on is the information that my wife provides them, which is very good info by the way. Unfortunately, doctors dismiss any information from parents because the parents tend to be medically trained by the world wide internet and therefore have nothing relevant to say. Angie knows Rickelle better than her team of doctors because we have the big picture.

Solution: We are going to do two things. We are going to keep medical summaries on all of our kids and carry it from doctor to doctor. This really sucks but we see this as the only way to get the level of care we need. Secondly, we are going to start advocating for a statewide (even national) electronic storage of medical records so that the patient owns the records and not the doctors. This way all of the records can be accessed by whatever doctor is being consulted. This will create a harmony of medical care not yet seen.