The Antidote to Suffering: How Compassionate Connected Care Can Improve Safety, Quality, and Experience

CHAPTER5The Compassionate Connected Caregiver

IN JUNE 2017, my daughter-in-law, Olivia, experienced excruciating abdominal pain that came on unexpectedly and wouldn’t go away. She went to the emergency room twice over the course of a week. Each time, she waited for well over an hour to see a doctor and then longer for diagnostic testing, wasting the better part of a day. All the diagnostic tests—including CT with contrast, ultrasounds, and lab work—came back negative. And yet she still felt tremendous pain, an 8 out of 10. The doctors gave her the narcotic hydrocodone, but Olivia didn’t want to take it. She was a paramedic and couldn’t work shifts ...