We ran out of Potassium today - so they wrote an order for two bananas with every meal!
A husband feeding his sick wife.
The entrance to the Hospital.
Jody and I standing at the entrace to Moi Hospital.
I have quickly discovered that they run out of medications here and it varies day to day what is available. They do not inform the team when the antibiotics run out they just put N/A on the treatment sheet or sometimes they keep checking that the patient is getting the medication. So you can think your patient is getting antibiotics when in reality they are not.
Today they ran out of potassium replacement. One of the patients on Beth's team had a very low potassium and really need replacement. So the above picture shows and order they wrote for the patient to have two ripe bananas with every meal. We thought this was pretty humerous.
One thing I am learning is that if you want to make sure a patient is getting a medication you need to physically walk to the pharmacy and ask them if that medication is in stock. We are constantly changing patient's antibiotics around based on what is available. It is really hard to keep up with the treatment plan.
The other interesting thing I observed today is that patient's hang around for several days after they have been discharged. I think this is due to a combination of factors. Number one is the patients can't leave until they pay their bill. Number two they have to wait for someone to come get them. We have patients that have been discharged and just sit there for days/weeks. We just walk by them on rounds and say "they are discharged" and no further discussion.
Tonight is dinner out for everyone. We go to a restaurant in town every Wednesday night. The food here is good but it is nice to go out and get some more variety. Last week we went to a delicious Indian restaurant. I think tonight is Chinese or Italian!
I hope all is well back in States. I miss you all very much. Thanks for following along on my blog.
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