KOK Edit: Your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM)
KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) Katharine O'Moore Klopf
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Friday, April 14, 2006

The Waiting Game

Well, now the VA hospital wants my father-in-law, A., to hurry up and wait (backstory here, here, here, and here) for his prostatectomy. You have cancer? Don't worry; we can just leave it in your body for six to eight weeks, no problem.

A's doctor called this morning, after canceling the surgery yesterday that he'd scheduled for April 18, to say that his department head at the hospital, during case reviews this morning, said that A. must wait 6 to 8 weeks for a prostatectomy because of his "tendency toward getting infections."

Sounds as if the hospital's looking out for A's best interests, doesn't it?

I'm not so sure.

Of the three prostate biopsies he's had within the last few years, all have been at the same VA hospital and two have resulted in infections requiring his hospitalization. I've found several medical studies that show that the rate of infection from properly done prostate biopsies is 1% or less.

Doesn't sound to me that the docs at A's VA hospital are that competent.



sandwich generation in-laws intergenerational prostate cancer Veterans Affairs EditorMom

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you need to talk A into trying another hospital. When my late husband seemed to develop an infection anytime he went near the closest hospital, I insisted on patronizing a different hospital. Lo and behold, the state started publishing infection statistics by hospital, and that "closest hospital" had by far the highest rates in the region.

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

We've tried to convince him. But going to another hospital would mean going through Medicare rather than the VA, which carries a much higher copayment. And when money talks, A. listens—and ignores everything else.

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