Health Care: How would you like to go to hell?

[MatrixEscape]

(I give full permission for anyone to copy this, reprint it, and use it)

Imagine going to hell when you get older or become infirm?

Well, if MFA (Medical Facilities of America, Inc) is any example of corporate greed for profits, then that may just be your fate: Hell on Earth, and then, (if you are lucky) you die!

I personally know people who work at an MFA run facility called Lovingston Health Care in Virginia. From what I have been told, over and over, and have even seen by going there, this place is proving to be nightmare a true, shadow cast by the current climate of profits over humanity.

We might be able to thank the current flavor of government, (Bush/Repub along with Democrat complacency) for this kind of horrible situation. If it continues unabated, it will certainly be the model for suffering for many of us in the future. We will get old and we may become infirm. The State seems to pay the problem no mind and there seems to be no way to overcome the malfeasances of the wealth-building ownership, (I hear that the CEO/founder made $60 mil this year) and the complicit, complacent endlessly hungry investors, (would they really want to know what suffering their money creates?) And remember, you, by way of taxes and such, are footing this particular bill for the most part unless the inmate there has property or other equity to drain before that point.

Before I cite the problems that this place has, (and it is private health care, not state-run) I want to ask you all if you could consider what it would be like to end-up in a mess like this? I mean, you are not in prison, you are just old or incapacitated to some degree. You, in some way, are able to pay for the care, so that is not an issue. Because the State only comes in to do certain kinds of oversight at prescribed times, (they are ready for it) and cares little about the ratio of staff to patients, MFA can reap maximum profits and still appear to be an acceptable facility in Lovingston Virginia. In truth, this facility is deplorable and is not at all acceptable in any way, shape or form. And it looks like the corporate model for profits is winning out here and might be reaching all of us as we find ourselves at that end of life where choices are few.

Understaffing, (only to save money and increase profit) is a major issue. You could have two CNA's and to nurses to handle over 60 patients on a night shift -- maybe less. The management is poor and they are serving as corporate lackeys who only exist to serve the CEO and investors, nothing more. They are paid well to hide, keep out of site, and simply manage a horrible situation that is beginning to look like more of a concentration camp than a health care facility. And you can quote me!

Keep in mind that there are two kinds of people who work there. The day shift, (which is more obvious) is allowed to provide only superficial value for the patients. At the end of the day, they leave the night shift with an endless amount of neglect and certifiable horror when it comes to human dignity and respect. Remember that the supreme mismanagement, most likely based on corporate mandates, makes this so. The day shift is allowed to get by with minimal care while providing a better face to families. That is the point. We are talking about patients who have not been properly medicated, laying in soiled diapers, developing bed sores, etc.

The food service is deplorable and not at all on par with what you might expect when the residents are, one way or another, paying 3K a month for their care and stay there. That is absolutley rediculous. If you want to know what kind of horrible, ridiculous diet you are going to get a facilty like that, just respond to this post and I will be glad to fill you in in detail. Rest assured, you could eat better at McDonald's anytime! There is no concern about nutrition or even the quality offered or the enjoyment of the food by the people who have to eat the garbage offered. That is only a small part of it, and wouldn't you think you could eat enjoyable food and even have the benefits of choice, a dietitian, and other things when you pay that much and have no other choice? Are your old Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, etc., eating in such a disgusting way at the nursing home? Are you really paying attention, or is this MFA facility an exception to the corporate rule?

The help at this MFA run facility are good people and they are genuine care givers by NATURE. Yet, this facility is discouraging their care and compassion and breaking each and every one of them down into the corporate model stereo-type, and they cannot do their jobs or continue in that fashion. It will NOT work! Lovingston Health Care is is on the verge of major problems, (they pay so little that any new, inexperienced help goes through a revolving door) and the major casualty, (as it is now) will be the poor residents of this Auschwitz for the old and infirm. Keep in mind, they are paying top-dollar for their internment and the problem is, many of them are not in a clear mental state where they can do much about the situation. Their families are often not concerned enough to notice, (such a shame) the poor care, due to the neglect of the company itself, they are getting day after day, after horrible day.

Because the company is FOR PROFIT ONLY, the facility is more like moving cattle to slaughter than anything you you might imagine. They get away with it! The time has come to stop that. These patients get nothing near the care they pay for at such a price as far as food, attention, therapy, entertainment, care, or even social events, goes. They are nothing more than profitable meat for MFA and its CEO. The trick is, YOU are paying for this neglect as well as the poor morale from underpaid, overstressed employees. They are pushed to their very mental and emotional limits and their hearts are crushed by the limits and pitfalls of working under the flag of corporate profits. This is deplorable and should not be accepted in anyway by anyone.

This MFA facility, in its lust for money, accepts and keeps patients that are not at all appropriate for its capacities and staff. That means that Nurses and CNA's get literally beaten and abused by the "inmates", (as MFA should be calling them ... patients do not get treated this way in my book). The management has not regard or concern for the types of cases they admit. They simply "recruit" what will fill beds and keep the profits flowing. This is detrimental, both mentally and physically, to the caring staff who are gradually being reduced from professionals to cattle herders as the money continues to flow unabated!

I could go on and on and on, and if you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them. There is more to this than I could reasonably relate in a post here. I posted this because I see the end results and I certainly fee the results that nothing put profit as a concern can bring. From all that I know, I would certainly rather die in any other way than in an MFA facilty at this point. I mean, they shoot horses, don't they?

I don't know what good it will do, but any activists that want to target that wonderfully successful profit magnet that processes people for revenue, MFA, should surely do so for the sake of the staff and the poor patients that we may end up being someday.

[Donnachaidh]

1. nursing homes have always been a frightening prospect for older people

Even before the *for profit* horror started. One of my first jobs was as a nurse's aide in a home, and I couldn't take much of it. Mainly because the aids were left to do all the heavy work, while the RN's spent their mornings watching soap operas and drinking coffee in the kitchen. I felt horrible leaving those folks alone at night, and finally had to leave when I could not get a favorite patient out of her bed by myself to change her sheets. She'd had an accident, and was twice my size. None of the nurses wanted to miss their shows, and told me to sit down and not worry about it. They left her sitting in urine for an hour.

I can only imagine how much harsher it has gotten for the elderly these days. What have we become as a society when we dump those family members who require too much care in a home? I certainly hope any universal care measures sees to the appropriate needs of our elderly.

[MatrixEscape]

2. Thank you!

I know, from being with them, the position a true care giver has in life. I understand and empathize with what you face in terms of frustration in relation to what the companies that control you manifest in your profession.

It is my hope that this thread will bring more of you out to vent you grief as your efforts to fulfill your duties and proclivities are most certainly crushed and thwarted by the companies that bleed profits from behind the mask of what they are insinuating as any kind of humane care.

I have met many Veterinarians with more compassion and concern for animals than these corporate entities have. We are certainly at risk when we lose our youthful powers, both physical and mental. And yet, we assume that someone will care and provide for us at the end. Corporations will not do this and they will only do their best to extract the maximum about of money from the minimum amount of care. Our state of mind, happiness, and such, are simply not an issue. This is not care giving. This is more like a rendering plant or a factory.

Please! I would like to hear both questions that elicit more information about the facility in my post and the experiences of those with direct knowledge about this aspect of health care. I think the readers here need to know what is going on and why.

[Horse with no Name]

3. I've always thought that Nursing homes are the cruelest cut

Early in my nursing career, I worked at one for a very short time.
When I was there, I did MY damndest to help those people. I was hired as a treatment nurse and you can bet your ass that every dressing change was done, every treatment was done and it was always done willingly and compassionately.
I worked Monday through Friday and I actually saw wounds start healing, people start feeling better, etc.
Then I got sick and was out for almost 2 weeks in the hospital. When I went back, the wounds were worse, treatments hadn't been done, etc.
The kicker of course, was that it had been charted that the treatments and wound care were done as scheduled.
I'm a rather meticulous nurse and I always date, time and initial everything I do...however, it was my techique to do it in the middle of the dressing, not on the outside because I had experienced other people taking my initialed tape off the outside and replacing it with their initials (Bragging--but I do my dressing changes with a certain flair--my own signature twist in the middle that tends to keep them in place).
Anyway, It's been 20 years and I can tell you the day that I took the dressing off Mr. Lancaster's toe that I had put on 2 weeks before...his entire toe had rotted into the dressing and actually fell off when I took off the dressing.
I picked up the toe and the dressing and the proof (my initialed, dated and timed dressing) and threw it on the DON's desk and told her that this just wasn't acceptable.
I finished the day out...finished my dressings and when I clocked out, I never came back.
Speaking generally of my experiences, the majority of nurses that end up in nursing homes are ones that are very much like the patients they serve...they just have nowhere else to go.
Can't hack the hospital, can't hack nursing anymore period and just need the paycheck without a whole hell of a lot of effort.
Every now and then, you get young, fresh, idealistic people come through who want to make a difference who just get beat down and realize that they are actually in an environment where you can't make a difference and they end up leaving.
It's very sad really.

[MatrixEscape]

4. Your reply is right on spot, HWNN.

That sounds exactly like what I have been observing and am trying to deal with here. I would hope that it would become a bigger issue within this forum and context because it may be as big as SiCKO in import and impact.

Your point about dressings applies to the issues of preventable bed sores as well, as you know. They can be totally prevented by professional care givers, but only under the right, (read: professional) circumstances with the time and manpower that this requires.

We have a crisis here. We are all facing it. It really should be addressed and MFA in Lovingston, Virginia is a good place to start this inquiry and potential revolution. We need people to start being concerned about how they will eventually end up and aware of what they, (or the people, or the State) will pay, no mater how bad that end result, (and the long-term misery endured unto the relief of death) may be.

I am almost certain now, from the two responses here, that MFA's Lovingston facility is not, at all, atypical of what we are all looking forward to. It seems like being in prison and being in a nursing home or long-term health care facility are not all that different. Is that what you want, America? Is that what you are working for today> Did you want to break down your loving and natural care givers while they cry and lament as you suffer in pure neglect? Well, that seems to be the case, the fact, and your future now. Go get the profit-grabbing corporations before THEY GET YOU. Remember, you won't have much choice when you are in their grip, even if you managed to avoid them during your younger years by being independent.

Ain't that the rub? As in, I spent my whole life avoiding and being free of Corporate America, and damn, they got me in the end, and it lasted for like, twenty years of pure misery while nobody noticed or cared. Yeah, that's a great outcome! Shoot me in the head before they admit me because I may not even get the medications, (pain and otherwise) that I need to be in comfort and at peace. Wow! What did you expect for this model of greed? Oh, you can think about it in your bed or wheelchair later if you don't do anything at all now. But when you think about it then, there will be nothing you can do to end the fate of your current decisions. Sorry.

[MatrixEscape]

5. The pain and tragedy is great! Please respond!

The abject pain and misery that I am experiencing from what I see, here, and experience from the people involved in this, (not to mention the patients who I can only identify with, not knowing for sure my own fate) is incredible.

I would like you all to help me. Maybe you can make this an epic thread here at DU, (and other places by posting the text and URL) so that we can underscore and highlight the depth and gravity of this major problem before it is too late for us.

Tell your story! Get it off your chest. Let everyone else know what you as a care giver, or even as patient, has experienced. Lets move this forward a bit and turn it into a tangible form of communication and activism that has the intent to transform the situation like nothing before it has. It will serve as an inspiration and I don't think many of us can declare ourselves immune from the results implied. We just don't know how long we might live and just who, and for what reason, we will be cared for, in the end.

I know that there are many important issues with varying degrees of impact, but this one should carry a common bond amongst us: How do we care for our old and infirm? This is an issue that is moral, philosophical, and very grass-roots. It relates to our ideas of ourselves as a Nation and concerns what we do with the incredible wealth at our disposal.

Don't miss this chance to work from the ground up if you want to be active or activist. Hell waits for you, (unless you are exceedingly wealthy, of course) and when you get there, the choices are all gone. Seriously! There are no advocates. There is no court of appeals or even a place for opinions. You are only meat, subject to the bottom-line and dollar. Complaining will do you no good, but death will look far better and sound like a great deal there.