15 December 2021
Last Thursday we ordered 8x9-inch Mediplex bandages from Byram. Dr. Tong had assured us she had talked to the big shots there to make sure we get what we need and enough of it we don't have to order frequently.
We had enough on hand for a few days and typical shipments have been made in two working days. If you order "too soon," Medicare won't authorize payment. So we wait until we're within the shipping window.
But when the weekend passed with the order still unshipped, we began to wonder.
And yesterday we exhausted even our emergency supplies that our in-home nurses have provided from their own stash.
Salwa the LVN came to the rescue yesterday with a "No worries" tweet and a half dozen 6x6 bandages (which takes four to close the wound). She didn't have an appointment with us but came by between patients to drop off what she had. She said she'd go to the office after work to get more to bring to today's dressing change.
The dressings are wet-to-dry but the dry doesn't stay dry. It absorbs fluid from the wound. Blood and slough. So a dressing really only lasts 12 hours. And you do want to remove the layer against the skin so it doesn't become impregnated into it.
Sometimes the dressing just disintegrates, leaking fluid from the bandages and making it impossible to reattach them.
Late yesterday when we checked the status of our order with Byram, we saw it isn't scheduled to ship until Dec. 17. If it's coming from Huntington Beach, that means it won't get here until Monday, Dec. 20. That's another six days without bandages.
Or 12 dressing changes at four 6x6 bandages each. Or 48 bandages from in-home nursing. Which is more than the half dozen they usually supply.
Joyce will be calling Byram today to rattle their chains. They've created a crisis.
We supply the clinic with bandages when they do a debridement, so they aren't a supply source and we're exhausting in-home nursing as a source. You can't get bandages this large at CVS or Walgreens.
At this point, frankly, we're just shell-shocked by the systematic failures to provide the care Joyce needs. What a system.