[HSF] Death on waiting list

[gabi ford]

From: "Michael Firstenberg" <msfirst at gmail.com>
>opposite.  Keep an in-patient a day or 2 (or more) waiting for surgery,
>particularly without a valid reason (which of course varies on who you talk
>to) and the hospital adminitrations come knocking on your door about length
>of stay.

Michael,

You are completely right.  I often wonder why we are so obsessive about 
minimizing length of stay some of the time, while looking the other way 
other times.
The weekends are especially notorious for being times when nothing moves.  
Status quo -- because the person covering for the attending doesn't want to 
make a decision or just doesn't want to invest the time.
On the other hand, we ask patients to show up at 0400 or 0500 the morning of 
surgery.  And if that patient lives further away, he might have a long drive 
the morning of surgery or he is forced to spend the night in a hotel.
Hard to understand what the real priorities are.

Gabi