Come on...really?

Well, I don't know about you all but this has definitely been a week, and not a good one at that.  I've had several brush fires to put out, and yesterday, I got a one alarm blaze.  I got a highly unexpected call from a non-Edgemere employee (a private caregiver of another resident) telling me some information I needed to know about the 3-11 shift, and the lack of care my mom was getting.  Since none of us are usually there in the evening, this was news to me, and very disturbing news at that.  I nearly blew a lung I was so angry--not at the whistle blower--at the staff of Edgemere.  (The whistle blower got a gift card and personal thank you note from me, with all my sister's and my contact information, should she ever need to tell us anything else.)

  Rather than share all the gory details that might be TMI (too much information) anyway, let's just say I waited until I saw a color other than red, before sending off an email.  But I sent one off last night, and before the coffee had even finished dripping this morning, I had two responses --one from the Nurse Manager, and the other from the new Administrator of Edgemere.  Now we're talkin'.

To say that both were scrambling to fix the situation is an understatement, and to make sure they both understood just exactly how serious I was, I showed up over there for a little "face time" this afternoon.  I knew the Nurse Manager was on vacay, and wouldn't be around, but the Administrator??  Oh, why not....   So, yep...I asked to see him, and they went and got him.  He'd been over there working on our "issue", and had just left to walk back to his office. ( He didn't know I saw him peek around the corner to see what I looked like, but I could see him in the mirror and for some reason, that gave me a feeling of leverage--I already knew what he looked like, since I'd seen him in their Newsletter.) 

We introduced ourselves, and he was most apologetic and assured me what had happened would never happen again.  I told him I was sure it wouldn't, either, since 1) I am a licensed RN in the State of Texas 2) if I reported them, Edgemere could lose their license to do business  3) that the address for the Texas State Board of Licensure -- Grievance Division, was posted on their bulletin board not two feet from us  4)  I wouldn't even need to Google it.  I said it with a smile and a small laugh, but the implication was clear.  As I watched the color drain from his face, I was happy to note he was already bald.  Otherwise, I'm betting his hair would have dropped right off, onto the carpet.  If I'd been in his shoes, mine would have.  Luckily, I'd already done my homework with mom, so I was armed with statements from her, details, etc.  Dude.....you're screwed.

I have found that to be sure you really get someone's attention, follow up your email with some direct face time, telling them you want them to have a face, to go with that name.  Otherwise, you may find your issue never gets handled.  I especially enjoyed mentioning that I live under two minutes away, so unannounced drop in's wouldn't be any problem. Since my mom is my only surviving parent, and had given ME the job of her care, her care was of special importance to me.  I thought that was a nice note to end on.

I'm bettin' come five o'clock, he's having a Martini somewhere.