Just to let everyone know: Because of the HIPAA (Health Asssurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the United States, no health care provider be it physician, nurse, nursing assitance, janitorial person can call for a priest or speak to a person about their spiritual life even if they are dying. It is considered invading their privacy and you can lose your job and be fined heavily. You cannot offer baptism to someone it UNDER THIS LAW. That is one reason people in the medical profession do not do this anymore. Even a dying baby cannot be baptized. This applies to all hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and the like.
Your personal doctor may know your wishes, but when you enter the hospital he has no say. You are assigned a physician and your wishes no longer matter.
I was recently in the hospital. They put your information on the computer at Admissions. If they ask you what religion you are, there is no room in the software to put Traditional Catholic. They just put Catholic. Then you get a Novus Ordo extraordinary minister offering you Communion which my SSPX VERY traditional priest told me I could NOT accept.
When I asked them to call my SSPX priory for a priest, I was told "there's no room to put that. All we can put in the name of the denomination."
The best thing to do is to tell someone you want a priest called and then tell them at ADMISSIONS, AT THE NURSING STATION, EACH AND EVERY NURSE AND CNA THAT CARES FOR YOU that you want THIS person called if you are in danger of death.
YOU NEED TO PUT THAT PERSON ON YOUR "APPROVED CONTACTS" LIST on Admission, at the nursing station, and tell each and every nurse and CNA that cares for you. Some may pay attention. Most will not. They will just say, "Oh, don't worry. You'll be fine." I nearly died twice and my contact person was NOT called.
What the point of this is, it's not like it used to be. Don't expect spiritual help when you go in a hospital. They can't do it anymore UNDER THE LAW and most don't care anyway no matter what you say. If it's not in the software, you have an ever greater chance of NOT getting help.
See, what they have in Admissions is not always ALL transferred to the floor where you are. So you may have it on SOME software and not on others within the same hospital. That happened with me and what I was allergic to. My allergies list did NOT make it to the actual floor I was on and for one week I could not eat except for a little Jello and bread because they never told the nurses I had allergies. When I finally found this out, I told the nurse and she put it in a PAPER file, NOT on the computer. No one looked at the PAPER file, only the computer when they come into your room. So I still got very little food even though I was bleeding extensive internally and getting very, very weak. They kept bringing me food but I was allergic to it. The nurses didn't care. They keep track of what you eat and what you don't and they knew I was not eating. It took ME to figure out the list was somewhere else and not on the computer because I had worked in a hospital and knew how messed up they are.
So again, DON'T COUNT ON MEDICAL PERSONNEL to call a priest for you. Have a contact and MAKE SURE THAT CONTACT KNOWS YOUR WISHES AND KEEPS CALLING YOU FREQUENTLY. MAKE SURE THEY ARE ON THE "WHO TO CALL IN AN EMERGENCY" SPACE ON THE SOFTWARE. A CHURCH WILL NOT FIT. A PRIEST MAY NOT HAVE ACCESS TO HIS PHONE WHEN YOU NEED HIM. PICK SOMEONE WHO HAS THEIR PHONE ON ALL THE TIME AND LET THEM KNOW YOU ARE IN THE HOSPITAL.
MAKE SURE THAT CONTACT AND THEIR PHONE NUMBER IS ON THE "APPROVED CONTACTS LIST" AT THE NURSING STATION SO THAT EVERY SINGLE NURSE CAN SEE IT or else no one will call for you if you can't call yourself AND they will not tell anyone if you are even living or dead. IT'S THE LAW. (No, I don't like it but I'm just informing all of you)
MEDICAL PERSONNEL ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK TO ANYONE NOT ON AN APPROVED CONTACTS LIST.
1. Wherever you go in the hospital: Your room, testing places (you couldl have an unknown allergy to the ingredients used for some tests and be in danger of death), physical therapy rooms, ANYWHERE -- take the name of your contact and their phone number with you and tell the people that if anything happens to call them immediately.
2. Make sure your contact's name and phone number is in the "who to call in emergency box" on ALL software. EVERY TIME they switch you from one room to another, make sure they have that information. Tell every single doctor, nurse, CNA who to call in case of emergency. Post it over your bed on a piece of paper. MAKE SURE THAT PERSON KNOWS TO GET A PRIEST TO YOU.
3. Tell your contact when you are in the hospital so that they will answer their phone even if they don't recognize the Caller ID.
4. Have your contact (the more the better) CALLL THE NURSES STATION TO SEE HOW YOU ARE DOING and not just call you. The more people that call, the more they pay attention to you and provide for your needs. They are busy. Squeaky wheels gets most attention.
I've worked in hopsitals, ALFs, nursing homes. They are all the same -- don't care, but hospitals are by far the worst.
Matthew--I put this here because of the above post about doctors not doing their duty. if you want to start a new thread and put it there, please do. I don't know how to do it.
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