petition; 2 days in hospital after surgery

This keeps popping up on this site.



Why would anyone want to stay in a hospital? Every hour there increases the risk of infection or a medical error. You will not get rest, comfort, pain relief, or support in the average hospital these days. Go home!



Dr. Susan Love advises women to go home right after mastectemies - for their own comfort and safety.

I would like to make a point here.  My medical insurance would not cover extended hopital stay.  I went in under a 23 hour plan.  My surgeon did not officially enter me or request a room until after I was through the surgery and in  the recovery area.  Therefore, I was able to stay over night, but was out early the next morning(less that 24 hours). 

Now I have discovered that the insurance company that has my separate cancer policy(that I purchased 20+ years ago) will not pay any of my hospital bill because I was not confined to the hospital for a complete day.  So, here we are.  Caught in the middle and left holding the bag. One won't pay for anything more and one won't pay for anything less.

What can I say? 

Jan

I am sorry if this sounds terse.  The whole idea of that supposed "act" and the tone of some of the supportive comments remind me of an era when women were considered frail and in need of protection. 

Everyone may have a different experience and opinion.  Here's mine, FWIW:

I had a left-side mastectomy w/ SNB (no reconstruction) 3 wks ago.  It was considered "day surgery" but included one night in the hospital.  In retrospect, I'd have loved to have gone home the evening of that first day.

I felt fine. I was walking unassisted. My appetite was back. I was not groggy from the anesthetic. I didn't need "pampering", particularly by hospital staff who were dealing with much more serious medical problems than mine.  Learning to empty and re-charge my drains and strip the tubes took all of about 5 minutes. There really wasn't much I needed to learn about what I would have to do for myself.  (I'll admit that having this discussion board has been a great asset.)

For someone who is having problems adjusting to "breast removal", a longer stay in the hospital--and perhaps some counseling--might be a good idea.  Some women might need more help adjusting to the situation than others.

Also, I have no doubt at all that, if I'd developed an unexpected medical complication, my doctor would have kept me in the hospital longer...with the approval and support of my insurance company ("medical necessity" is the key phrase).

If a woman has no help at home--no husband, no friends, no neighbors, no visiting family members who can assist her--then she might need awhile to make the adjustment.  I'm not sure that warrants spending an additional day in the hospital with coverage from health insurance, though.  Perhaps a home-health nurse or nurse's aide would be one solution.

Just my opinion.  YMMV. 

otter 

mittmott,

You are absolutely right.  I was in a grouchy mood last night, when I posted that comment.  I would be first in line to criticize insurance companies for putting their bottom line ahead of concerns for quality of medical care.

I know about battles with insurance companies over coverage and payments.  I've been very fortunate--in each (rare) case where my insurance company has balked, they've finally come through, because my doctor (or I) was able to convince them that the treatment was routine and medically necessary.

There is no way I would advocate that insurance companies should overrule a medical doctor's opinion about what was best for his/her patient.  What I was reacting to was the implication that women having mastectomies would need to be kept in the hospital simply because of the potential emotional trauma of their surgery ("breast removal").  Perhaps I read too much into those words.  Perhaps they reminded me of the way my mom has been acting about my surgery (pitying me, rather than offering support and encouragement).  Maybe I'm wondering why my mastectomy hasn't bothered me more than it has...

Pain is no joke, and a heavy-duty approach to pain relief requires things like morphine or fentanyl pumps.  When my nurses thought I was on a morphine pump after my mast/SNB, they said I would need to stay in the hospital for two nights instead of one.  I wasn't on a narcotic, though--it was an infusion pump administering bupivacaine to create a paravertebral nerve block over my incision.  It was discontinued the morning after surgery so I could go home later that day.

Anyway, I just wanted to apologize if I sounded insensitive to the concern about medically necessary hospitalization.  I have a good insurance plan that isn't terribly expensive.  Even so, I'd like health care costs to be as low as possible; that will increase the opportunities for more people to be insured.

otter

Madalyn has a very good point about the germs - at least you know the germs at home (a quote from my PCP).  They can never force you to stay if you don't want to, so it is better for the option to be open.  I went home within 36 hours of a total abdominal hysterectomy mainly because they couldn't do anything for me that I couldn't do for myself and I didn't want to be exposed to those nasty germs any more than I had to be.

first of all I could NOT find the petition.  then I found out that it is not doing what it promisses to do.  my conclusion is that it is a trick to make a person to comb through the Lifetime site and see all their commercials. 

Everybody is different.

In my case the state I live in has a statue requiring two days.

In my case I was up and ready to go home in about 24 hours, so I did. 

The downside is that it increases costs. It's better for a woman to have the surgery covered and get the cancer removed and feel like c$$p at home than to not be able to have the surgery at all. Plus, as many of have, hospitals suck.

I think those who feel strongly about this should work on their state legislatures. Sometimes battles are easier to win there because they don't attract such notice.