The word is dopamine, this medication is a hormone and is given in emergencies. The medication is used to keep your pressure up and is extensively used in the ICU. The literature says that this drug in small concentrations will dilate the renal artery and by extension improve renal output. I personally have never seen it work, perhaps it only works in patients I have not seen. I have never read any literature or seen any research that would lead me to believe that this is even an acceptable therapy This is an IV drug and a small concentration is 3mcg/kg/hr. So the patients are weight and the kilograms changed accordingly. It takes floor nurses an hour to do the math. It is always infused by a machine to prevent overdose.
It is a favorite of nephrologist. The idea is to keep the patient in the hospital so you can charge more for the visit. So they will place the patient on the medication on the floor and visit every night, or send in the PA. Nothing changes but we keep trying. So if you want to save money, or increase the nursing time, prohibit this drug from being used outside the ICU.
The hospital will not even bring it up because .... it makes money for them. Increases the census.
Calcium, this is mineral needed by the body, if the patient is lacking in calcium, the calcium is removed from the bones and put into the circulation. The hypercalcemia that could occur can affect your heart adversely.
The drug is used by women to prevent osteoporosis, or brittle bones prone to fracture.
Some doctors come in, stand at the door, then order Calcium for people that are ninety. The problem is if the patient is ninety he will not benefit from the therapy, in fact it is dangerous, because it predisposes the patient to choking. The pill is as big as your thumb.
This is not an acute condition to be treated in the hospital, it can be done in the doctors office. The sole medication is prescribed by a doctor that is more concern with his income than the patients.
In my case, the doctor ordered 12.4 mg of IV Morphine push, and the nurse was stupid enough to follow it. So they stopped my heart and luckily my friend Alice was there, she reverse the drug. Morphine is a drug as common in the hospital as gasoline is to a car. That nurses and doctors dont know the dose speaks poorly of them. But drugs should be taught in school based on frequency of use.
On one occasion a doctor wrote an order, give all drugs IV, the nurse than got the Mylanta and put it into a syringe ....she proceeded to administer the dose and the family protested, she insisted she knew what she was doing, so she gave the Mylanta IV, into the heart and the patient died. : < (
You would think that the nurse would have been sent home ..... she wasnt, she was forced to work another shift as a penance.
Their are a lot of cons here for hospitalization, one of them is resistant strains of bacteria, the MRSA or methicillin resistant staph aureaus is a big one, another is Klebsiella pneumonia, and yet another is E coli. Get one of these flesh eating bacteria and you will not forget, if you survive. So what can we do to make health care better?
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