Hospital Policy made by Idiots

I just got back from visiting a dear friend in the hospital who has now been there for 5 months. She was shivering when I got there and when I went to hold her hand, it was ice cold. I noticed her extremities were quite swollen and I asked how the swelling had been. When we left it had been quite bad with skin weeping it was so thin from the swelling. She said it was getting much better although to me it was worse then when I left 2 weeks ago. I went to pull the sheets up and noticed the sheets covering her were wet and when I checked under it her gown was soaked. I asked her how long she had been wet and she said a long time. I went to get the nurse who tells me that she had been changed when they got on shift at 7ish (it now was about 1 in the afternoon). I told her she is really wet and needs to be changed.

Her reply was that she weeps quite a bit through her skin and if they changed linens all the time they got wet they would be changing them every hour! I stood there absolutely dumbfounded. I must of have had an incredulous look on my face or something cause all of a sudden she had the deer in the headlights look on her face! I said "So are you telling me you WON'T go change her till shift change 6 hours from now?" She said well if she REALLY wants to be changed we'll go change her. My mouth just kept opening and closing I was just stupefied at what she was telling me. I just very quietly said " No that's fine I will do it myself where are the linens?" She then tells me oh but if you change her then you will have to un-gown, scrub up again and re-gown as if that was going to deter me. I just looked at her and said "That's my almost sister laying in a pool of wet fluid, I will change her I wouldn't want you to be putting yourself out."

When I gathered up my things and went back in the room Keith asked me what that was all about as apparently by this time my face is all red and I have that "don't talk to me look". I repeated the conversation and my friend started to cry saying how much she had missed me taking charge while I was gone. I couldn't stay long as I could tell she was tired even though she wanted to talk so said we had to go. All the way home I kept going on and on to Keith about the idiocy of hospital politics and that they were so concerned about the bottom financial line that they had forgotten about the patients. Keith had left the room so I could change her and her skin was all red and raw from being so wet for so long. So needless to say the old fingers are going to be busy as I get a hold of Fraser Health so I can go to bat for my friend. Idiots.