I know I have written about this before but it bears repeating.
When you are working in healthcare, December sucks for a variety of reasons:
Labor and Delivery has all the babies due that were conceived in the coldest month of the year. We know what some people do to keep warm and entertained during the long winter’s night.
Emergency Room has all the people who did not get any of their vaccinations and NOW want the ER to save their asses. This department also has all the slip-on wet leaves and fall patients. Add a soupcon of all the patients who don’t care what they are eating because it is the “Holidays!” and have probably gone off their prescribed diets.
Med-Surg has all the post-op and post-procedure patients and the emergency room patients who have been admitted.
Cath Lab/Endovascular- similar to the operating room. Also a consequence of all the rich eating that takes place during the holidays.
Operating Room has all the patients who have met their deductible and require surgery before the end of the year. After all, that is when the deductible ticker will click back to zero and the paying of the deductible starts again.
Oh, and everyone would like to 1) have their babies, 2) get that rash looked at, 3) go home after recovering in the hospital, and 4/5) have their procedures done while they have maxed out their deductible before Christmas. So they can be home to celebrate with the family. And eat all the things they couldn’t have in the hospital, which lands some of them back in the hospital, to be admitted, to be discharged, to eat all the things they couldn’t have in the hospital… Etc.
A vicious cycle.
Isn’t American healthcare fun?
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 