Patient Safety Summit - My Thoughts

I attended the Patient Safety Summit on last weekend.  I had no idea what to expect.  When I first looked at the cost to register, I was like, I don’t have $1000.  So I emailed Jim Bialick and to my surprise received a scholarship to register.  I then wrote back and asked if Robyn could attend with me and received one for her too.  We live near Irvine, California so this was not a problem for us because we did not have to travel.

For me, and I am not advertising for the Patient Safety Movement, it was very encouraging.  Although, they did not present on the issue that Robyn was faced with, those presented on were Sepsis, Resuscitation and IT issues, which are also very real to families who have lost loved ones due to errors in these areas.  So I could not be selfish and say, what about Robyn.  My viewpoint is, that there are so many avenues to address when it comes to medical errors that the fact that someone outside of us, is willing to stand up and say this is wrong and needs to be acknowledged, is a plus for all of us. 

The only way to eliminate medical errors is that we all come together in this fight against the mighty giant that so many have refused to acknowledge and stand up to.  The goal of the Patient Safety Movement is to eliminate medical errors in hospitals by 2020.  When I heard this, I said to myself they have a long road ahead.  Those of us who have met with the corruption in the medical community know that this is going to be a long road to hoe.  However, if the federal government gets on board, as former President Clinton suggested during his speech, then it will propel the movement forward and make that goal more attainable.  It was also encouraging that Vice President Biden recognized the issue and offered his and President Obama’s support.

Now if someone admitted to a hospital acquires a hospital borne infection during their stay the cost to treat this infection is the responsibility of the hospital.  Medicare will no longer pay for this cost. This encourage hospitals to be more responsible in their reporting and treatment of patients. It is pretty obvious that the negligence is on the part of the hospital.  For many years, because hospitals were making profits off of these infections, there was no urgency in preventing them.  But now that they won’t be reimbursed and stand the chance of losing revenue, they are waking up to the call to prevent these errors.

As I said these are just a few areas of patient errors, but it is a step forward and someone is hearing our call and doing something.  For many patients, like Robyn, it is too late to correct what happened, but at least we can try to make sure it does not happen to others.  I was encouraged by the summit.  There is so much work to be done in the area of medical negligence/errors that one person cannot do it all.  I think each year the summit selects a different issue as their focus.  We all want to be heard and the way I see it, as the movement grows, the more issues will be addressed.  We cannot do this alone.  Like many of you who have been affected, I am skeptical too.  But to see that someone, outside of us, cares enough to start the ball to rolling on this issue and is garnering the attention and support that we have not been able to get, gives me hope.

Families of Children in the Idaho Falls Area

.Good morning, Robyn and I attended a Patient Safety Summit last weekend. It has left me thinking about the medical community in Idaho Falls.  I have always wondered why the neurologist in Idaho Falls prescribed drugs to Robyn for conditions she did not have.  Then I thought of some of you, who I know have children on powerful drugs prescribed by doctors in Idaho Falls.  I am wondering if it is some kind of ring there.  Getting these kids addicted to these powerful drugs and forever changing the course of their lives.  I want you to think about that.  I actually received a response from the department of justice prior to attending this summit. I doubt Robyn's case was coincidental. Once I started pondering over this, I said to myself, there are probably many families in Idaho Falls who have been affected by this.  Anyway, please inbox me if you know specific cases.  I don't want anyone to compromise themselves.  My thoughts are they are placing specific demographics in that area on drugs, labeling the kids as having behavioral issues.  They can't help but have them after taking drugs for conditions they don't have.  Anyway, my Idaho friends think about it, because I know that you all know kids who have been placed on drugs.  When I moved there I always thought it was strange the percentage of children in the social services programs and being prescribed drugs for behavioral issues.  If you think this is farfetched, there is an article about a doctor who prescribed cancer treatment to patients who never had cancer, he did it for monetary gain.  He was not in Idaho.  I have forgotten where it was but I will find it and share it.  I know it happened to Robyn, and I don't believe she was a lone case.  Just think about the social services in that area and who makes up their patients and the monetary gain from all of these patients.

Believe in what you asked God for

Good morning! Good morning!  I know I have been quiet.  I have been taking care of some other things that the Lord led me to address.  I have also moved into the book of Matthew. Just moving along as the Holy Spirit directs me.  It’s a New Year and I am being more purposeful with God and my study of the word.  Listening and moving forward in spite of the appearance of opposition.

Everything that happens in the lives of the children of God should bring us closer to him.  Even the things we bring on ourselves work together to accomplish what God purposes for us.  The lessons learned help us become bolder in our walk.  As I look forward to the coming year, I anticipate a new season.  This is the year for new beginnings. 

This morning my study was in chapter 14 of Matthew.  My focus this morning was on the disciples. When they were in the boat, in the midst of a storm, and thought Jesus was a ghost walking on the water.  Peter asked him, if it is you Lord command me to come to you on the water.  The Lord responded to Peter,” come.”  Peter stepped out and was walking on the water.  Peter knew it was storming before he left the boat, but I imagine he did not realize how great the storm was until he was on the water.  As he started towards Jesus, he looked at his surroundings and started to sink.  This was because his faith wavered.  But Jesus was watching, and as soon as Peter cried out to him, he rescued Peter.

So as we go forward in this New Year, remember this, whatever you have asked God for, the journey towards it is not going to be without challenges.  Don’t get in the midst of the journey and turn around because of the storms, they will come.  If the Lord is calling you towards it, then he has prepared the way. He already knows what opposing forces will come against you.  He has already equipped you for it.  Keep your eyes on Jesus and don’t be afraid to take on whatever he is calling you to do.  Let this be a year of unwavering faith to overcome the lies of the deceiver who does not want you to receive all that God has for you. 

God has already changed the course of one chapter of my life where the odds were insurmountable.  I am stepping out of the boat again in 2015 and anticipate this will be another year where he changes the course predicted by the deceiver.

My challenge to you, get out of the boat and do whatever God has called you to do.

Be blessed and keep the faith.  Remember Jesus is always near, and like Peter, all you have to do is call out to him.

My First Challenge of the New Year

January 2, 2015,

So yesterday was going really good and then, boom, one of my ducks fell out of line and challenged me. Wow! Just when I thought I had this train ready to pull out of the station. Well, here's my thought for today, when the enemy can't get you to respond, be careful and watchful because he will go to and fro until he finds an inroad. Our challenge is to love and disarm the one he attempts to come through. Wow! what a challenge of love.

I Peter 5:8 (KJV)
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

My Parallel Study to Job and the Injustices We Face Today

As I took my flashlight and journeyed through the book of Job, I realized that as important as the beginning and the ending was, the middle was what I needed to stay focused.  Often times when we reference the book of Job we reference God’s selection of Job and God’s rewarding of Job at the end.  I think we even do this in life.  We know how we want something to start we even know the ending, but it is the middle part that gets us lost and off course.  We want to be the chosen and we want the reward, but we don’t realize what it will take to get from one point to the other, the faith journey.

I was thinking, wow, Lord, this is a good post to end out the year.  When the Lord led me into this book I was kicking and screaming.  I was ready for the reward.  I have been fighting this medical negligence battle too long.  I am oh, so tired of it.  This is pretty much what I had been telling God.  Lord why do you have me in the midst of these criminals?  What have I done that you have placed me here?  How do I move on from here?  How does it all end?  I feel like you have forsaken me or turned away from me, what now?

Don’t we all feel this way sometimes?  If the journey lasts too long, or the situation does not workout according to how we planned for God to work it out.  I highlighted that for a reason.  We cannot plan for God, and to try and figure it out is frustrating.  So stop.  The only way to God is by faith. The only way to move him is by faith.  So I figure He lead me to read Job in its entirety because I was having a tantrum.  Years ago, one of my nieces shared with her little sister, “Daddy does not do tantrums.”  So let me share this with you all, our Father God does not do tantrums, but he is merciful.  He does know that as humans we are subject to get weary and to even fail sometimes.

Before I started my present journey, I often read the beginning of Job and was moved by how God trusted Job, and even more motivated by the reward.  But now, in the midst of what looks to be a long journey, the beginning and the end is not helping me.  As a matter of fact, it proves to be more of a hindrance because I am thinking, Lord, I know you.  I know how faithful you have been.  Why is this so difficult and then my guilt sets in and makes it worse.  Guess what, as I read through Jobs journey this time, I realized he had the same issue I am having.  That helped me.   

I find the conversations from Job 3-32 quite helpful.  In these chapters we see Job responding to his situation, and his three friends who accused him of sinning.  He had to have done something awful for this turmoil to fall upon him. His friends were unrelenting in their accusations. They suggested that Job repent of his sins in order to be restored.  Well, Job had not sinned.  As I meditated on this part, I considered all those who have walked the halls of injustice.  Those who have reached out for help from an unjust justice department.  Those who know they were set up and unjustly convicted.  Some have even sat at the table with and looked into the eyes of these sick spirited men.  They watched as they destroyed evidence and then falsely accused them, taking away their basic human right to live.

Can I tell you that when you have been that close to discrimination and injustice it changes you.  

When you’ve watched the perpetrators set you up and attempt to destroy you and your family’s life, it does something to you.  Only the God in you will keep you from self-destructing or causing harm to someone else.  When I watched the riots on TV after the verdicts in the police shootings, and I listened to the commentators and reporters, I said to myself they don’t know.  There is an unexplainable anguish that comes with watching your child or loved one destroyed.  Compound that with injustice and you have a time bomb, and only God can diffuse it.

I can only imagine Job’s frustration levels with these individuals and their unfounded accusations.  He honestly had done nothing until he opened his mouth to defend himself.  I can see the enemy now working through Job’s thoughts.  Yeah, you did nothing.  Yet, look where you are.  You were a just upright man.  Where is your God?  In Job’s quest to defend himself he did sin.  In response to their accusations, Job paints himself as a righteous man and even paints God as somewhat perverted to allow this in his life.  Yet in all of Job’s rambling, he said yet will I trust him (faith).  Job had enough sense to know that for whatever reason he was in that state, he was still trusting God and looking to God to step in.  Regardless to how bad it got and how hopeless, he felt his hope was still in God.

It gets really difficult at times to stay focused especially when the storm does not cease.  Unjust practices, family destroyed, finances wiped out, and now in bad health, Job was inconsolable.  His friends had no clue.  He now was at the mercy of those he had given counsel too.  They wanted to know why he wasn't able to find comfort in the advice he had given to others. His response was that if they only knew the weight of his burden.

 I think the worst situation to find yourself in, is Job’s situation.  He needed sound counseling and what he received was judgment and condemnation.  There are those who lay in wait for the faithful to fall short. They have a need to bounce on the shortcomings of Christians.  This somehow makes them feel more secure and justified in their sin sick ways.  Oh, but thank God for Jesus, who has already atoned for our shortcomings.  So when you fall, seek Jesus, get up, and get back on the wagon.  As for those who condemned you, pray for them and move on.

As I conclude my walk through Job, I want to stress this point, even the best of us fail but God does not count how many times we fall, he just wants us to get back up and keep moving towards him.  God finally answered Job.  While he corrected Job for calling him out, he made the others pay Job for their false accusations.  

My conclusion of my journey through Job, some journeys are longer and more challenging than others.  As I said earlier, it is the middle part of the journey that so often causes us to stray from God’s plan.  The goal for 2015, stay focused on this faith journey. 

What's in the Gift?

When I was a little girl, I loved going to my grandmother’s for the Christmas Holiday. One of the most memorable moments for me was pulling up to the house and smelling the aroma of the wood burning stove mixed with the aroma of pies, cakes, ham and turkey. I also enjoyed the fellowship of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course my grandparents.

My grandmother always had gifts for everyone. When I consider it now she had to have started shopping early, like January, because even if a guess showed up, one that wasn’t invited, it seemed that she had something for them too. She put a lot of love into all she did for us. As I look back the gifts appeared to be age appropriate too. I recall one year, all the older girls received sewing machines for Christmas and I got some ducks. Yes, initially, I was upset. I wanted to throw those ducks away. I wanted a sewing machine just like everyone else had. But you know what, as time passed I enjoyed pulling those quacking ducks around. I could take the ducks places the sewing machine couldn’t go. 

I think I can relate this situation to our lives today. Jesus, the gift, and our father God, the gift giver. God bestowed upon us a wonderful gift of love, the bible tells us that Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. Not only do we have eternal life through him but he has a plan for us here on earth. He has planted in each of us gifts. Many times we don’t recognize the gifts we have because we are so caught up, much like I was, in coveting the gift of our neighbors.

So as we go through this season of giving, I encourage you to take a moment and consider the gift within you, and ask yourself, am I using what he’s given me to the fullest? Or am I looking outside for something better when the best is within me?

So in conclusion, I ask you today to consider the gift within you, and remember the gift giver. He has plans for you. Have you really accepted his gift?  As the New Year rolls in, we all make resolutions, right?  Well, this year resolve to make life changes, resolve to trust what God has placed inside of you.  Resolve to identify the gift within you and use it to bless others and never forget the greatest gift of all, the Love God shared with us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Don't Quit

Don't Quit
An Inspirational Poem
(Author Unknown)

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.