These are two simple ways to get your loved ones out of the hospital faster, says PROFESSOR ROB GALLOWAY. And hospitals that ignore them can be fatal…

What is the one thing you can do to help your loved one recover and leave the hospital faster?

Become friends with the nurses? Give the advisor a bottle of wine? Making a fuss, complaining about everything?

Some or none of these things may work, although there is no guarantee it will get your loved one home any faster.

But from what I’ve seen in practice and based on research, there is one very simple but effective step that will make a difference: basically move in with them – visit them as much as possible, bring food for them, help them. to eat and drink, and just be there as long as you can.

As part of my training as an emergency room consultant, I worked for a year on medical wards caring for elderly patients. A woman’s memory stands out clearly because her husband was able to do all this for her. And when he couldn’t due to limited visiting hours, she was essentially killed.

Visit your loved one as much as you can, bring food for him or her, help him or her eat and drink, and just stay there as long as you can

This patient was an amazing woman; she had dementia, but was so happy. She always sang and encouraged the staff and other patients to join in with songs.

She was admitted due to confusion due to a urinary tract infection. Due to her vulnerability, we expected her to die within a few days. But for the first few weeks she did surprisingly well. It wasn’t something we did as doctors or nurses, but what her husband did for her.

Every day he sat next to her and fed her and helped her drink. He brought in beautifully prepared, nutritious, home-cooked food – in stark contrast to the hospital-provided, ultra-processed excuse for dinner that sat on the tray at the bottom of her hospital bed, untouched due to the lack of staff to feed. her.

After a few days he asked if we could reheat the food he gave her. Of course we did, because we knew the benefits of him helping her feed her outweighed the risks his food might pose simply because it didn’t have an expiration date on it.

With his continued care, she began to get better. So much so that she was able to get out of bed; he helped her to the changing table and when she had strength, he took her to the toilet.

Because the staff saw how valuable he was to her, the restrictive visiting hours of 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. were lifted for them. This meant he could help her go to the toilet before she went to bed and kiss her goodnight.

The day before she was to be discharged, a new senior nurse arrived on the ward and insisted that he would adhere to strict visiting hours. Saddened, but too embarrassed to argue, he left.

A few hours later he got a call. His wife had tried to get herself to the toilet; The nurses told her to wait a few minutes until they could take her away. But because they were short-staffed, this wait turned into an hour.

Desperate and also too proud to let herself have an accident in her bed, she tried to walk there alone. But she slipped and broke her hip. Although she was operated on the next day, she never left the hospital and died three weeks later.

There were never any restrictive visiting hours listed on the death certificate, but in my opinion this certainly played an important role.

I believe you should be able to visit your loved one indefinitely (up to a certain point at night, of course, because they – and you – need to sleep).

If the patient is happy and the visitors do not adversely affect their care or other patients, then unrestricted visits should be allowed when the patient is awake, writes Professor Rob Galloway.

If the patient is happy and the visitors do not adversely affect their care or other patients, then unrestricted visits should be allowed when the patient is awake, writes Professor Rob Galloway.

But as we know outside of emergency departments, maternity wards and pediatric wards, most hospitals have standard visiting times of 2pm to 8pm; The reason for this is twofold: firstly to stop the spread of infections and secondly because the ward rounds and nursing care rounds take place in the morning, and the idea is that a visit then would slow down the doctors and nurses in their work.

But this reasoning is irrational, and many hospitals are starting to realize this.

The latest change was the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, which runs a number of community hospitals. Last month, it expanded visiting hours from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. to 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Executive director of nursing Anne Scott said: ‘We recognize the value a visit makes to the health, wellbeing and care of our patients and service users.’

Because just because things have always been this way doesn’t mean it’s right or based on evidence of what’s in the patient’s best interest.

On the contrary, there have been many studies showing that liberalizing visiting hours so that loved ones can come and go freely improves patient outcomes, reduces length of stay, and saves money; a win-win situation for everyone.

How does this work? Having less restrictive visiting hours reduces patients’ stress levels. A review of studies published last year in the journal PLOS One found that as patients’ stress levels decrease — which longer visit times play a role in — their outcomes improve. This was the case for both the way patients felt – reducing symptoms such as pain – and for more objective indicators, such as length of hospital stay.

Another study, published in the journal Critical Care, found that unlimited intensive care visits led to both a significant reduction in length of stay – by one day – and a 60 percent reduction in delirium in all patients. Crucially, there was no increase in infections.

The attention – and also the food – are also important. We all know the terrible impact visiting restrictions had during Covid, but one important aspect was highlighted in a 2021 study in the International Journal of Nursing Studies. One of the negative consequences for patients’ health was that many not only ate less, but also did less physically, such as taking themselves to the toilet.

This was in addition to mental health consequences, including depressive symptoms, agitation and reduced cognitive skills. The nutritional aspects of this study were alarming, and because it is often visitors who help their loved one eat, malnutrition is stopped.

As reported in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics in 2022, a third of patients who enter the hospital well nourished may leave malnourished. All too often, rushed staff leave food out of reach of patients and don’t have time to help feed people who can’t do so themselves, let alone open their drinks and yoghurt cartons.

Finally, there is a strong argument for having family members present on both the ward and medication rounds – when nurses dispense medications to patients.

There they can answer questions from the doctors to help plan care, and their questions will also be answered, reducing their anxiety.

It may make the ward round a little longer, but the benefits far outweigh the extra time required. Additionally, family members can be the final check on their loved ones when it comes to reducing medical errors, for example by making sure they are not receiving a medication to which they are allergic.

And with more family members around, everyone can do their part knowing they’re being watched. A 2006 study published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology showed that in five German intensive care units, when staff knew they were being watched, compliance with hand-washing rules increased by 55 percent increased.

Rules can be rules, but if they don’t make sense, challenge them, for the sake of your loved ones.

In my opinion, if the patient is happy and the visitors do not negatively impact their care or other patients, then unlimited visits should be allowed when the patient is awake.

I’ve seen the benefit of that. A week ago my wife gave birth to our daughter; the department was great in the care they provided, but I was also allowed to visit all the time.

It was important to me, it took some pressure off the staff and it helped my wife and our new baby in a crucial way.

But this option to visit should be standard for all patients in all departments.

Ultimately, it is your loved one in the hospital and it is you who must advocate for them above all else.

This way you can be there for them when they need you most.

@drrobgalloway