Western Plains Hospital and Lifeteam

[jeezeweeze]

I had excellent care there in 1999... had both knees replaced at the same time...
Rave reviews from me for the hospital staff and Dr. Garcia

[TexKan]

Oh boy - here we go!!! MIT really does have some first hand experience of the negative kind........... there are many that do. There are many that swear they would never go elsewhere as well. That's just healthcare in this day and age.

I can't for the life of me imagine why no one would not want a ghetto bird to come get them when they have been slammed by a rig 15 miles out of town. Hell I wanna be picked up by ALS units that can fly if they are scrapin me off the pavement. If you are bad enough for that ride - ya want one ASAP. Eagle Med should have done the right thing and found a contract with some other rural hospitals so they could supply what thier customer felt they needed. It's all about having a service and an option you don't have right now. How can that be bad? So what if some of the contract MD's are partners......... they gotta do something to invest thier $$$ Sounds like a good investment for a rural part of the state to me. I don't have a yeah or ney on the hospital itself. It's an OK hospital to me but when I used it or my family used it I sure kept an eye on them. The ONE time I did a gig there as a nurse for hire - I found so many issues with just medication errors that I refused to work there anymore. I drove to Goodland rather than to go 10 minutes to work. Pretty scary at that time. I'm sure they have improved OR they just have never found the crack to fall into.

[Zeb]

Yes the Pharmacy has made improvements over the last 3 years. Everything is now bar coded. Nurses carts all have scanners. This cuts down on human error. Also got a new medication bagger/labeler to help on the pharm side. Now when scanned, they can make sure they have the right patient and meds. It also tracks who gave the meds, what time, and who authorized meds. The new Electronic MAR system has helped greatly for our nursing staff.

[Dodgegal]

Did some asking of questions from people I know. This is what they told me. For Eaglemed to have a Helicopter here, they would need to find 3-4 heli pilots to be stationed here (not that easy) and to fill the other needs, they would need to keep their other staff here to fly when the heli can't. Like they do in Hays. Yes, some pilots can do both, but again finding them. It also doesn't sound like the helicopter will be landing at accidents and such. Atleast that is not what the plan is. They will still transport them to a hospital to be picked up.

Again, this is what I was told by some connected to this issue. If I was given bad info, blast over my head not at it.

[Detector]

I'm not sure about the pilots thing but I have been told no doctors have any investment in the helicopter. It is simply a service the hospital needed that EagleMed couldn't supply so they contracted with someone who could.

I heard EagleMed being picked up last night at the airport for transportation to the hospital so apparently they still use EagleMed.

Also, It's my understanding the helicopter will be landing directly at accident sights. Thats one of the major reasons for needing a helicopter.

[Made in the USA]

Originally Posted by Zeb

<<<<I don't see how they stay open with some of the happenings and violations occurring there. >>>>


Would you care to elaborate on these Happenings and Violations? I will investigate your complaint. Or are you just talking out your other oriface? I will be patiently awaiting your response USA.

Have you got any authority there, Zeb? If not, what good would it do? Of course, even if you do, probably wouldn't do any good either! I have been around many hospitals in my days, and this facility is the worst one I have ever been around. I know many people that will reply the same.

[Zeb]

I am not an administrator , no. I do however have authority in some areas of corp security. Enough that it would do some good? YOU BET I DO. (Actually any employee or patient has the avenues to get someones attention on violations)

Why would it not do any good? Perhaps you have carried these feelings for years? Perhaps a lot of things have changed or been corrected?. It is EVERY employee's JOB to report violations. It is one of the first things taught in orientation.

Each and every patient is made aware of a direct dial line to the administrators via the complaint line. If they feel the Nurses or the Floor Super are not listening to their concerns, they can take it right to the top.

I see what goes on behind the closed doors of the ER, Rad, Lab ect...Things people sitting out in the lobby do not see (wait time). I also see some nurses come and go like a revolving door because there is too much expected of them from their supervisors. Can't hack the standards set because you John Q expect above standard care. We do have some great nurses too and we want to keep them. I see areas constantly changing to provide better care, like the new Patient Care Unit and the Heart Center.

If you have an actual complaint, lay it on me. just PM me

I too have had many problems with billing from WPMC. Most of my problems are not at the Hospital level but from the insurance carriers. I have tracked my problem step by step through the departments, and everytime it has been a screw up from my insurance.

Today, a gentleman was talking about Garden City and their Hospital. They wouldn't trust anyone in GC, and have been driving to DC for years because of their grudge. Doesn't mean that is the way things are run over there now. Also hear complaints about Wesley Med Cen, how they got their 11am lunch at 2:35 pm. Things are not always perfect.

[faith]

I wanted to make a correction, Both of the air ambulance teams use Paramedics and Nurses. I appologize for my mistake. I still feel the same however that we do not need both air ambulances.

Thanks,

Faith

[BroncoFan]

I don't care where you go; hospital, surgery center, DC med center. I have heard complaints of how terrible all of them are. Remember that you rarely hear the rave reviews on any of them. You always only hear the negative. I really think that the hospital is taking a great step forward in getting helicoptor service and is continueing to provide more for the community and surrounding areas.

[TexKan]

Hey Faith - we all make mistakes in postin sometimes - that don't mean we change our minds in our opinion.

I don't know what you do Zeb but I would like to add that in the world of QM and CPI there is a dept that is designed to handel bad outcomes and the possible liabilities. It's Risk Management. Perhaps you have a connection there? Actually a relative of mine I believe is the QM co ordinator for the hosp. QM looks for opportunities to improve service and care. RM deals with the really undesirable outcomes. Most of these altho are system related and not always personell related. I think the issue that is being overlooked is that physicians use the system (called the hospital) and the outcomes are based on how that physician utilizes the system. The hospital system is probably state of the art for a rural area, unfortunately often times it's the choices the MD made that created the adverse outcome.

I only post this cause I did QM/CPI for our local teaching university in Galveston for 8 years. Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance companies look very closely at the stats the QM dept collects as well as lookin at the peer review system. None of us like to be the case with an adverse outcome or the case where substandard care was given - but it does happen. No MD, nurse or institution is perfect. There is an allowable percentage. That's why medicine is an art and not a science.

All the above is also why I chose not to work there. I am glad tho that they have streamlined thier pharmacy - perhaps my incident report helped. Scary when ya work with BSN's that don't know that maxide is not diazide (htn drug) worse yet any nurse worth the paper they work off of would know what the 2 look like -unfortunatley the pharmacy didn't know either if I hadn't known what they look like (thank you Ethel Franklin) that patient that day would have gotten the wrong drug cause the nurses trusted the pharmacy and because they couldn't find it in the PDR picture section they were willing to just give the drug - the drugs themselves are as old as the salt any nurse should be worth! I personally knew then and still know I'm a far better, experienced, seasoned nurse than to risk my liscense and reputation working around a bunch of wet behind the ears, I don't care attitude nurses. I know they are not all like that but when I work agency, I am very careful. That whole shift was agency - the charge was out of Florida - he wasn't interested in too much but the $$. It's not the money that keeps me in nursing! So I'm also glad to hear that they have gotten a grip on the nursing dept as well - it needed a shake up.