WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 Welcome to the Light Keepers podcast. I'm Clayton 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:05.400 Vandiver, your Light Keeper, with the show dedicated 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.460 to everyone who wants to get the most quality 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:11.460 out of life that they can. We don't talk about 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:14.939 the end of life here. We focus mainly on the 00:00:14.939 --> 00:00:18.820 quality of those days getting there. My co -host 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:22.160 as always, Charlene, our licensed clinical social 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.960 worker certified in the state of Florida, and 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:27.859 we invite you all to join us in this conversation 00:00:27.859 --> 00:00:32.240 this week. about the typical hospital stay from 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:35.479 start to finish on this episode of the Light 00:00:35.479 --> 00:01:05.870 Keepers Podcast. Hey, before we start, I'd like 00:01:05.870 --> 00:01:07.629 to invite you to please leave your questions 00:01:07.629 --> 00:01:11.049 or comments below. And please join the conversation. 00:01:11.209 --> 00:01:13.430 Questions this week will be answered during our 00:01:13.430 --> 00:01:16.049 next show that appears online every Wednesday 00:01:16.049 --> 00:01:19.870 evening at 7 p .m. Eastern. The Light Keepers 00:01:19.870 --> 00:01:22.370 podcast is an exclusive production of A Guiding 00:01:22.370 --> 00:01:24.549 Light Incorporated. We'll tell you more about 00:01:24.549 --> 00:01:27.010 A Guiding Light at the end of the podcast. But 00:01:27.010 --> 00:01:29.049 we don't have much time, so let's get right into 00:01:29.049 --> 00:01:31.150 this week's conversation. Charlene, thank you 00:01:31.150 --> 00:01:34.930 for joining us again. And what are the different 00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:39.450 reasons that someone might wind up going to the 00:01:39.450 --> 00:01:43.150 hospital? And how does that change how it all 00:01:43.150 --> 00:01:45.950 begins for the patient, the process of their 00:01:45.950 --> 00:01:48.269 hospital journey, their stay from start to finish? 00:01:48.489 --> 00:01:52.829 So that affects everything. For example, if someone 00:01:52.829 --> 00:01:55.530 walks in the doors to the emergency room versus 00:01:55.530 --> 00:01:58.269 rolling in in an ambulance makes a big difference. 00:01:59.250 --> 00:02:02.810 And what some people don't know, if they've been 00:02:02.810 --> 00:02:06.769 super fortunate in life, is that when going to 00:02:06.769 --> 00:02:09.009 the emergency room, obviously if you walk yourself 00:02:09.009 --> 00:02:13.689 in, you're not that injured and most likely you're 00:02:13.689 --> 00:02:17.370 going to be... treated and hopefully not hospitalized. 00:02:17.430 --> 00:02:20.330 But if you have to be brought in by ambulance, 00:02:20.590 --> 00:02:23.169 even with that, there are different levels. We 00:02:23.169 --> 00:02:25.509 talked about different levels of care. There 00:02:25.509 --> 00:02:28.110 are different levels of need when someone goes 00:02:28.110 --> 00:02:32.250 to the hospital, whether they're a standard admission 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:36.710 or a trauma call. Oh, so the emergency room sort 00:02:36.710 --> 00:02:39.349 of dictates the direction that some of your care 00:02:39.349 --> 00:02:42.099 goes from the moment you walk in the door. Absolutely. 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:45.240 Absolutely. Because, you know, if you walk in, 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:48.319 then most likely you're going to be able to provide 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:50.259 them with your personal information. They're 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:51.699 going to have what they need. You're going to 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:54.240 be able to tell them your symptoms versus, for 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:57.000 example, if you were a trauma call. Even with 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:58.759 trauma calls, there are different levels. You 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:01.340 have your tier one, two and three traumas. And 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:04.340 depending on what level of trauma you are, you 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:06.800 may or may not be able to give them any information. 00:03:06.979 --> 00:03:10.979 That's true. That's true. I see a note here that 00:03:10.979 --> 00:03:14.580 sometimes the trauma call means you're not going 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:18.919 to be undressing yourself, whereas other times 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:20.699 that you go to the emergency room, you might 00:03:20.699 --> 00:03:23.099 be asked to undress and get into the gown. That's 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:25.879 the other big difference. If you take yourself 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:29.680 to the emergency room, or if you come in by ambulance 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:33.909 but you're not a trauma call, you... pretty much 00:03:33.909 --> 00:03:37.650 are able to interact with that visit. You're 00:03:37.650 --> 00:03:42.789 able to kind of direct the show, so to speak. 00:03:42.930 --> 00:03:46.810 Okay. If you come in as a trauma call, then odds 00:03:46.810 --> 00:03:49.530 are the paramedics have cut off your clothing 00:03:49.530 --> 00:03:53.150 en route to the hospital and hope you're not 00:03:53.150 --> 00:03:56.189 wearing anything that was really valuable. And 00:03:56.189 --> 00:03:58.830 by the way, this is why mom always tells you 00:03:58.830 --> 00:04:01.539 to have on clean underwear because... I always 00:04:01.539 --> 00:04:03.680 wondered about that. You may not be the one removing 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.939 them if you are taken in as a trauma call. That's 00:04:06.939 --> 00:04:08.500 a good thought. Now, are there different levels 00:04:08.500 --> 00:04:11.759 of trauma? Absolutely, absolutely. So a Tier 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:15.159 1 trauma call is basically if you have someone 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:19.579 with a life -threatening situation and there's 00:04:19.579 --> 00:04:23.120 going to be an immediate need of severe intervention, 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:26.980 possibly even immediate surgery. So, for example, 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:30.850 some... Tier 1 trauma calls that I've been present 00:04:30.850 --> 00:04:38.629 for is gunshot wounds to vital areas. If you 00:04:38.629 --> 00:04:43.350 have an older person maybe taking blood thinners 00:04:43.350 --> 00:04:47.529 that fell and sustained head trauma, this is 00:04:47.529 --> 00:04:50.069 a potentially life -threatening situation. Of 00:04:50.069 --> 00:04:53.509 course. So that's a Tier 1 trauma. A Tier 2 trauma 00:04:53.509 --> 00:04:58.519 is less severe but still very serious. may require 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:02.199 surgery, maybe not immediately, but within a 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:04.180 few hours. This is someone who's going to need 00:05:04.180 --> 00:05:07.639 a lot of intervention, but not necessarily life 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:10.939 -threatening. They might need to stabilize them 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:14.660 first. Exactly. Do some tests, perhaps run labs. 00:05:14.699 --> 00:05:17.420 This would be a bad car accident where you have 00:05:17.420 --> 00:05:21.680 someone who's really banged up. but not necessarily 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:25.360 life -threatening. A Tier 3 trauma is if you 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:27.339 have to be a trauma call, this is the one you 00:05:27.339 --> 00:05:29.600 want to be because this is not life -threatening, 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.019 almost no risk of surgery. This is someone who 00:05:33.019 --> 00:05:36.819 needs that immediate help, needs that urgent 00:05:36.819 --> 00:05:40.779 attention, but they're most likely, barring something 00:05:40.779 --> 00:05:42.600 severe happening, they're going to walk away 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:45.959 from it. Okay, so we find ourselves in the hospital. 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:48.740 Who are some of the team members that we're going 00:05:48.740 --> 00:05:52.740 to be meeting? So if you walk yourself into the 00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:54.860 emergency room or if a family member takes you, 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:59.480 you're going to be working with nurses, with 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:03.660 a physician, definitely. And depending on if 00:06:03.660 --> 00:06:06.420 you need any specialty care, for example, if 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:09.540 you need x -rays done, there may be doctors that 00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:12.259 see your chart and are involved in your care 00:06:12.259 --> 00:06:17.009 you may never see. the technician that reads 00:06:17.009 --> 00:06:20.110 those x -rays or reads the MRIs or the CAT scans. 00:06:21.110 --> 00:06:25.189 There may be doctors that your doctor consults 00:06:25.189 --> 00:06:27.939 with. that you may never see. You may get a bill 00:06:27.939 --> 00:06:30.500 for them, but you may never see them. So some 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:33.240 of the team you may never actually meet. Correct. 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:36.399 If you are going to need care when you leave 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:39.120 the hospital, then you're going to get to interact 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:43.279 with a case manager. These are usually social 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:46.360 workers or nurses who have additional training 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:49.959 in... setting up hospital discharges and coordinating 00:06:49.959 --> 00:06:52.060 care for when you leave the hospital. I was going 00:06:52.060 --> 00:06:54.279 to ask, what does a case manager do for you? 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:58.259 What do they do for the hospital? So last episode, 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:01.319 we talked about different levels of care and 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:04.699 if someone is discharged needing rehab, skilled 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:07.319 nursing care. So your case manager is going to 00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:09.600 be the one who helps coordinate that and set 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:12.000 that up for you. They're also going to be the 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.939 ones if you need care at home. So if you need 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:18.100 home help. coming in home health care or if you 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:20.740 need follow -up wound care or anything like that 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:23.720 in the home or if you need equipment. they're 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:25.379 going to be the ones that are going to be setting 00:07:25.379 --> 00:07:27.459 that up for you. Well, of course, this is all 00:07:27.459 --> 00:07:29.779 a highly personal choice and no conversation 00:07:29.779 --> 00:07:32.879 we have on the Light Keepers podcast. Should 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:34.920 ever take the place of your own medical care 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.879 team or other medical advisor, professional advisor, 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:41.199 who should always be consulted by you on your 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:45.180 own specific situational needs. It's always good 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:47.279 to be willing to talk about quality of life because 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:50.920 every single one of us. We'll face some of these 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:54.680 issues someday, either not prepared at all or 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:58.040 very well prepared indeed. From joining us right 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:00.180 here on the Light Keepers podcast each and every 00:08:00.180 --> 00:08:04.120 Wednesday at 7 p .m. Eastern. The Light Keepers 00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:07.079 podcast is an exclusive production of Animation 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:09.439 Studios and is brought to you by A Guiding Light, 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:14.279 a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to education 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:16.519 and information that allows informed preparation 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:20.490 for living the very best life possible. 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And we're so grateful for your support. 00:09:15.700 --> 00:09:17.960 Sincerely hope you'll join the conversation in 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.279 coming weeks. Add your questions and comments 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:24.340 below. Speaking of that, take a moment and hit 00:09:24.340 --> 00:09:26.539 the like and subscribe buttons right now. It 00:09:26.539 --> 00:09:29.980 is free! And turn on that notify bell so you'll 00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:33.710 catch every single episode. I'm Clayton Vandiver, 00:09:33.809 --> 00:09:36.549 your Light Keeper. We'll see you next time.