Gilroy, CA : E-Prescriptions Cutting Down On Time, Costs And Errors : View From A Private Duty Caregiver Serving

Gilroy, CA : E-Prescriptions Cutting Down On Time, Costs And Errors : View From A Private Duty Caregiver Serving

Article by Richard Kuehn

Gilroy, CA : E-Prescriptions Cutting Down On Time, Costs And Errors : View From A Private Duty Caregiver Serving, Carmel, Carmel Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Gilroy, Gonzalez, Greenfield, Hollister, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, San Juan Bautista, Seaside & Soledad California

I recently went into my Doctor and he told me he was going to email my prescription in to Safeway. I went down to pick it up about 30 minutes later and was surprised to see it was already done. I wrote yesterday about the downfalls of automation which resulted in at least one recent death. I suppose the same could happen with a crossed wire on a prescription, but this seemed to me to be a very efficient way to get the job done. According to an article in the Monterey Herald, the use of e-prescriptions is becoming increasingly commonplace and is being found to be a timesaver for Doctors and patients and research has shown it can reduce medical errors. Nationally, the number of electronic prescriptions has grown to 326 million in 2009, up from 190 million in 2007. By 2014, it’s estimated that half of Doctors will write electronic prescriptions. The biggest drawback is that a physician’s office has to pay $ 20K to $ 30K per physician, not including the cost of training and upkeep or the conversion of records to an electronic system. However, it cuts down on human error. The Institute of Medicine estimates that 7,000 deaths occur each year due to medication errors, many of which are caused by illegible handwriting and human error. One Doctor quoted in the article says the system saves him 30 minutes or more per day. Time is money! Doctors are reporting that the system also helps them catch potential allergies like drug reactions, and points to cheaper drug alternatives for patients. Bravo for technology that works!http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/blog/index.html?entry=monterey-ca-hospital-technology-thehttp://www.montereyherald.com/health/ci_18520442?source=rss

About Richard Kuehn & Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey:After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member I was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. I became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to the elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula. Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog

Question by : Is it unfair of me to give my mom the ultimatum to get the help she needs or I won’t come back to the States?
Sorry this is SO LONG.

My mother has major depression that she has refused to get for, and it’s had a severe impact on my life. Six years ago she and I were in a car accident together and while she was being treated at the hospital they discovered a malignant tumor in her brain. She had brain cancer, but it was caught early enough so that she was successfully treated pretty quickly. She’s been in perfect physical health since then, but has remained depressed this entire time. Things became worse for all of us when we moved to Australia in late 2008 for my dad’s job. Her mood swings and depression became more intense then, and since we were on the other side of the world my grandparents and other family members couldn’t help. It was a hard time for everyone, but she made it so much more difficult. She has a MBA and a work visa but refused to get a job. She wasn’t doing the stay at home mom thing either. We had a maid and this girl who goes to the local university was like a nanny for us. My mom would sleep in late every day, take like 2 hours getting dressed and then go and volunteer at our church. She was obsessed with how everything looked – our house, our appearance, our behavior – but that was about it. She didn’t really help with homework, she didn’t prepare meals, she didn’t show a lot of love or anything. Part of her issue was OCD. She was obsessive with rules and order. She could be absurdly strict and give harsh punishment for little things. My dad travels a lot with work, and wasn’t around enough to help us out.

After my baby sister was born 13 months she got post partum depression on top of everything else. She stopped being as OCD but it was kinda like she just stopped living. She never once breast fed my sister. She’ll stay in her nightgown and robe till like 3 in the afternoon sometimes and go for a couple of days without taking a shower. She became super self conscious and didn’t want outsiders coming in. The maid and the nanny / babysitter were let go. This was all at a hard time in my life too. The private school we’d attended was closing because there weren’t enough students and money, and it was like the one place I really loved and was happy. My other sister and brother started going to another school. My dad asked me to start going to school online so I could be at home and help out with the baby and other kids. He started paying me a pretty nice amount since I was doing the job of the maid and the nanny. I’ve saved him money by doing those jobs, and I keep the house running and take care of the kids. In a way it seemed like a good solution because I want to go to college in the States and sticking to an American curriculum was helpful. But going to school online has a ton of drawbacks. All my friends from school live in Illinois. The time difference makes it hard to do the classes and even skype with my friends. Trying to pay attention to your school work while you’ve got a baby sister crying and teething is super hard. The responsibility of doing all the laundry, all the cooking, all the everything involved in running our house and family is way too much. The money doesn’t make up for everything I’m missing! Worst of all, I felt chained to the house. I don’t have my license and I don’t have a work visa so I can’t work outside of the house in Australia. The only times I ever left the house was to walk my sister to and from school, walk the dog, do the grocery shopping (since my mom never did) and go to gymnastics three times a week and to church on Sunday. I spent the rest of my life in the house.

My dad has been trying to get my mom to go into therapy for ages. She won’t go. She saw a psychiatrist in March and was prescribed an antidepressant. She won’t take it because she’s afraid she’ll gain weight from it. She used to be very beautiful and thin and said having us wrecked it all. Right now I’m with my grandparents in Illinois. I am happy for the first time in over a year. Just being a normal teen has felt so amazing. They know about my mom. They want me to stay here and live with them. They have a huge house in a nice area and live right down the road from a great high school. I could start there in August as a senior. I already went down there and talked to them about how I’d go about enrolling. I could have a real high school experience and just enjoy my life again. I’m never ever going to get to be a teen or go to high school again. This is my last chance. I think that me being here will actually help my mom. Without having me to do everything for her, she’ll have to start doing it herself. I think being productive will help her so much. I’m hoping this will make my dad insist she get help. I already talked to her about it. She’s upset. She said because I’m 17 I have no rights and she can make me come back. Idk. I told her I’d come back if sh
The Q got cut off. I said I’d come back if she went to therapy, took the medicine, and agreed to let the maid come back so I’m not doing everything myself.

Best answer:

Answer by Decadence
Stay with your grandparents.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!