Finger pointing exercise

The term ‘transition coordinator’ seems innocuous enough, you coordinate others who perform the duties that they are assigned, and all works out in the end, a safe discharge the result.

Pointing the way??

That’s the theory, anyway. 

The ‘responsibility vs. authority’ argument seems pretty clear here. I am the point person, the visible one who has to be certain the care plan is adhered to by the various care planners. I am merely an administrator. So the discharge on Monday occurred, with an interesting mix of problems that indicate a lack of focus by others - that I have to address and hopefully fix. Not my job? So there!

Lets start with the facility person who arranges the discharge. As medications will be needed, an appointment with the consumer’s physician is needed. Given that this person doesn’t drive, a method of transport to the doctor’s office is to be determined.

So the  appointment was made for the following day at 3:45 PM. I set up the PCA schedule, and can you guess - there was not a PCA scheduled who could drive the consumer then! Call it a mistake, but hey, why ask me what a good day might have been since I only created the schedules. Thanks...

Exit stage left??

The bigger issue is that after a call to the doctor, there were no other times available this week and there is a finite supply of meds. The transport for Title XIX (Medicaid) requires 48 hour notice. A fabulous sales job by me (30 minutes) convinced them to schedule a pickup for the appointment in <24 hours.

Let’s follow the what-ifs:

• the meds run out
• the consumer was unable to get to the doctor to get a new supply

Who has the ultimate responsibility here? You’d think the nursing home personnel, who have to provide a safe discharge, might have sweated the details a tiny bit. Au contraire! Any problems fall onto me. I am not averse to work, but where ought the blame ultimately be placed? There are a few other sidebars to this story I’ll ignore, but you get the idea...

Let’s not be silly Ralph - the blame is to fall on you! Responsibility vs. authority. It is a simple enough concept that I get it. What about the other players?


So much behavior here seems so old. Change can be good for the soul, my mantra should be change is good, change is good, etc. Wheelchair or not...