There’s a bed available …

If you’ve ever had an ailing relative in Texas, looking to find a skilled-nursing facility bed near family in Clovis… If you’ve ever been zonked in a freeway accident, staring up at a trauma team at Community Regional….  If you need a knee replaced, or to deliver your baby in Clovis… what you expect, what your family hopes to hear, is that there is a bed available for you — as you heal or as life takes its course.

It takes a lot of dedicated caregivers to make that possible.  Emergency responders who field the call, those who assess your needs, those who employ the best technical and best hands-on practices. The media have taught us their job titles — EMTs, MDs, RNs, phlebotomists (well, maybe not that one), X-ray and lab techs.

But there are many other enormously valuable human gateways to that earnestly needed, critical care bed. Transporters — getting you (and your medical records) around the building. Housekeepers — the turnover experts, getting things clean and ready (what a demanding job!). Dietary — what can and can’t you eat. Nurses’ aides, physician assistants. Security, chaplains and VOLUNTEERS!

The bureaucratic process has an emotionless name — “through-put” — getting a patient from the front door to an inpatient bed (if needed), treatment and eventually out the door to finish mending at home. It involves case managers, utilization reviewers, information technologists and all kinds of double-checkers. It also involves planners, construction experts, futurists, donor-investors, preparing for construction in years ahead as well as sustaining existing operations. The nearly $400 million expansion at Clovis Community is a great example.

Many of them have to be on hand or dang near-to-hand 24/7, 365. You mostly won’t recall their actual names/job titles or know how many years many of them studied and practiced — so they do what they do so well.  They are part of the priceless, taken-for-granted safety net we call health care today in America.

They are the quiet background when all you and your family want to hear is, “There’s a bed available … “