Diaper-free hospital floors

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ltaluv

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I was just in the hospital overnight with a bout of pancreatitis. When I was admitted, I told them that I self cath but that I still normally use diapers, expecting that I'd end up either with a Foley or a diaper. They told me that the medical floor I was on was "diaper free," and that if I can self cath I didn't need a Foley. They brought me an underpad and told me that if I had an accident they'd come change the sheets. And when I had an accident, that's what they did.

I get that diapers can be overused in hospitals so that nursing assistants don't have to help patients to the bathroom, but refusing to even let me wear the diapers I'd brought with me seemed a little too much. I don't have any sort of rash or skin breakdown, so I didn't understand the rationale.

I dislike that sort of one-size-fits-all policy. A policy requiring every patient to wear diapers, whether incontinent or not, would be absurd. How is this policy any less absurd?
 
I would never go back there again! That sucks most hospitals love when anpatient will use a diaper, they pay like 30 cents for it but charge insurance like 12 bucks each , so diapers are pure profit.

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Wow thats a hold over. I know some hospitals once had a policy for no diapers, but that was decades ago.

Weah, next time tocgova more modern hospital.
 
I've never heard of that. I think your nurse was just lazy and didn't want to deal with diapers.
 
What about bowel incontinence, how do they deal with patients that need diapers to manage it. I can understand they will put a catheter in for bladder ic issues to make it easier on the staff but a 100% no diaper policy is nuts.
 
Rob110 said:
What about bowel incontinence, how do they deal with patients that need diapers to manage it. I can understand they will put a catheter in for bladder ic issues to make it easier on the staff but a 100% no diaper policy is nuts.
Actually under federal law it would have to be an external catheter ,those things are headache and a half one kink and you blow the thing up and soak the bed anyway . Since 2013 catheters can only be used in critically I'll patients where there exact input and output needs to be tracked and regulated , 99% of hospital acquired infections originate in Foley catheters, and intermittent cathing wouldn't be used because that requires an RN to do ( sticking anything into or removing anything from an orifice is considered "skilled" work) no Hospital could support that and still make a buck .

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They let me do my own intermittent cathing while I was there. But I think you're right, if I hadn't done it, it would have had to be a nurse.

They want to make another attempt at the procedure that precipitated the bout of pancreatitis, so there a good chance that I'll end up in that same hospital again for up to a few days. I'm tempted to go in with a Foley already in place, so I don't have to worry about the lying in a puddle of pee. I wonder if they'd make me bring in a note from my urologist saying the catheter was ok. When my bladder isn't hurting I'd rather have a diaper than a catheter, but I'd rather have a catheter than an underpad and a full bed change multiple times a day.
 
If your Uro had privledge's at that hospital it would be easy ,if he didn't some pencil pushing administrator would have choice , dare I say admins rarely decide in your favor , although i kinda think that its a grey area ,because if you come in with one in place they lack justification to discontinue it unless it directly effects what your being treated for .

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Apparently, from what I've been reading, a lot of hospitals have put procedures in place to curb indwelling catheter overuse, which is the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. There's a daily assessment for whether a catheter continues to be justified. I have high residual volume, so I might squeeze by their protocol, but they could take out a cath that I'd come in with on the basis of being able to do a straight cath instead.

It seems that make hospitals have tender to put catheters into lots of patients to save having to help them to the toilet, rather than actually needing them. Same thing with diapers - they've been used on patients who don't really need them. Now there's a big backlash against their use, and those of us who do need them can't even get them.
 
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