St. Mary's hospital in Rochester, MN is very, very impressive. We were there from Monday evening until Friday midday. Not a planned event, shit happens. We were in Roch Monday evening for an overnight visit to make a Tue AM appointment easy, planned to return Tue and be home before sundown or even rush hour.
Had a very nice dinner in downtown Rochester Monday evening, returned to motel. An early bedtime pit stop for Mary with a bit of assistance from me showed unequivocal evidence of an internal bleed. Damn, that wasn't on the agenda! We called a number at Mayo we had, both knowing that the next stop would be the ER at St. Mary's. And so it was.
I'd no more than stopped the car at the ER entrance, wind chill about
-25 that night, when a woman came out the door with a wheelchair and transferred Mary from car to wheelchair like she'd done it before more than once. By the time I'd parked and returned, not more than 10 minutes in the arctic chill, Mary was thru triage and in a room being hooked up with half a dozen people busy around her. BP was so low they couldn't find a vein to start a transfusion. Mar was weak, but completely lucid. Our E.R. banter seems to engage the E.R. teams. We know a bit about serious but we respect and trust the professionals who are doing their best and we understand that bad shit happens to good people some days. Gloom will not deflect the grim reaper, gritty cheerful attitude sometimes does for a while. Fast forward thru ER, ICU and meds floor to discharge midday today. Very, very impressive.
Mayo is a non-profit or not-for-profit institution. I don't know what the difference is between those terms, but there is a marked difference between whatever those are and for-profit operations like Allina. We think Allina delivers pretty good care, but definitely not to the Mayo level of compassion and commitment to quality of life. The difference is in how the people are allowed to be motivated. Mayo is non-union, non-profit, not government subsidized other than by medicare. Their diverse staff is fairly compensated and recognized for making a difference. They walk the extra mile every day because that's what they want to do, and the org allows, encourages, rewards and even expects and requires that behavior and attitude. The current class in the Mayo medical school has 42 students. One of Mary's doctors was Kelsy, a 4th year resident as a brand-new MD. They connected like magnets. Kelsy aspires to be an ER doc at Regions in St. Paul or Hennepin County in Mnpls. Those are both very gritty venues. She'll be quietly brilliant wherever she goes. She's engaged, has a very nice ring. Well duh, her fiance is connected to J. B. Hudson somehow some way. Kelsy doesn't come from money, just from motivation. Mayo requires docs to wear suits. She had to borrow a suit from a friend. On her next tour she'll be able to wear scrubs. She can still wear her nice ring, of course.
I think they liked our attitude too.
One of the things they did at St. Mary's in Rochester was to wrap Mary's calves, ankles and feet with Ace bandages to combat edema as Mary's body aspires to become a watermelon from the transfusions and IV's to keep her BP up to functionally alive and able to walk tens of feet with a walker appliance. I watched carefully as Roxy the compassionate nurse did that. We learned in conversation that Roxy has been up and down a couple of rockpiles we know a little about, so we were sorta sympatico.
The Ace bandages came kinda undone this evening at the rehab facility after travel, several transfers and a couple of bathroom stops, so I redid them. Later a nurse came in to have a look at Mary. She noted the wrappings, asked Mary if she might like them off for the night, noting that this is usual practice. Mary said OK, then mentioned that the wraps were done by her hubby. The nurse did a doubletake, said "really?". Wull, ya. She looked at me with almost disbelief and said, "you did it perfectly!"
Aw shucks, grin grin.
That felt good. I did try to observe, learn and get it right.