A Mercer Island assisted care facility has been in the news in an unfavorable manner. Apparently their call light system didn’t function properly. A resident was down in his bathroom for the whole day!
It appears timely that Skyline has addressed this issue and we can now be located wherever we are in the building. But still, the button has to be pushed – and work. Cross checking and maintenance protocols seem to be the key factors. Click here for the KOMO story.
Hmm. We can let Them “address the issue”. We can go hungry like the birds with no food storage because the bible says He Provides. We can depend on technology working when we need it. Or we can build a community of people who realize that we don’t have to mourn our vulnerability…or deny it, telling ourselves and others we’ve got it made.
If it is too idealistic to think that real people can do better than corporate “people” when they decide to?
I have heard it said that the commonest problem the elderly with call buttons have is their own failure to use their buttons.
Imagine you want something right now. What’s your likeliest response? To push a button for someone to come wait on you? And what might that someone’s first response be? Are they otherwise occupied? Do they care? Is anyone overseeing their response to your call light?
Ring that call button too often and the Director of Nursing will tell anyone who asks: “This is their baseline.” And, fair enough, if you ring often, you ring often.
We know that any resident who is non compos mentis, temporarily or permanently, might neglect to use their call button. Or they may use it incessantly. Every system requires checks and balances. Every resident requires someone FROM OUTSIDE THE FACILITY (OR THEIR HOME) to care about them. Every resident needs others advocating for them. The question seems to me to be: Who should these these advocates be? Who could they be? And what is it that tells us it can’t be done?
Please edit that second sentence to read:
Is it too….
Thanks.