Free The Protocol: A Prescription to Die by John P. Goetz

suffered her wrath when he tried to give her a bath. But that was two years ago. Now it seemed that she knew him better than Eat. He was very good to her; and good for her. Eat never directly asked, but based on the date on the nursing school diploma hanging on his office wall, he was probably only a few years younger than Eat. He had surrendered the battle of his hair line several years ago and now when he shaved his face he just continued onto his head. It wasn’t a shiny pate by any means, but one of those that had a constant, lurking five o’clock shadow.
    “Eh,” Eat shrugged. He had trouble trying to be positive with the situation. “She thought I was dad today, and that I was dating Sophia from the dining room.”
    “You could do worse,” said Joey.
    “Playing matchmaker now, Joey?”
    “I know, it’s not easy. It’s a terrible disease. Sit. Make yourself comfortable. You’re making me nervous. She is doing better though. The kidney infection has cleared up, and she’s back to being her old social self again. For a while, she wasn’t coming out of her room. Not even to play pinochle. That’s when I figured something was up.”
    “I think it’s amazing that she can’t remember I’m her son, but she can remember the nuances of playing card games. Pinochle isn’t easy.”
    “I know it’s odd, but it’s a totally different part of the brain being used.” Joey walked back to his desk, opened a manila folder that was on the top of a pile of other folders, and sat down. “She had a quick physical last week. Just received the results.”
    “They’re giving ad hoc physicals now?”
    “Yup. They’re required once a month now. You heard that we were just acquired by Aequalis?”
    “Yes. The woman at the reception desk,” Eat looked up at the ceiling trying to grasp her name that he’d forgotten within seconds of walking away from the front desk. It came to him, “Rachel. She told me she was here for training. Some pretty snazzy technology you have here now. Great technology but now the menu is bologna, coleslaw, and Ensure?”
    Joey shook his head.
    “Lots of changes. The menu is only part of it. Everything is automated now. We have to enter all data into the Aequalis system, and it gets stored in some database. In DC I think. Aequalis then analyzes what we enter, and sends back instructions. It even has the pharmacy automated.”
    “It recommends the diagnosis?”
    “Not really. I don’t know if the system makes the diagnosis, or if the panel interprets the data. However, they make the actual diagnosis and treatment. Of course the doctor here can override, but we’ve been told that for that to happen, it would require a load of paperwork whose sign-off and approval would need to go to whoever God reports to. Someone in DC from what I understand.”
    “Rachel was able to see exactly where mom was sitting. It even showed her a video of her waiting at the table.”
    “That’s one of the new tools Aequalis has brought in. Each resident is wearing a necklace, wrist bracelet, and an ankle bracelet. They’re nothing a fashion critic would endorse, but they’re very functional. They continuously transmit their location within the confines of the property. If the signal from two of the three devices is not received for more than thirty seconds, an alarm is sent to the front desk. We then go on a hunt.”
    “Proximity detection,” Eat confirmed. “I’ve done a lot of work with that. On a much larger scale though, not the geriatric set.”
    Joey nodded. “But there’s more. If a necklace or wrist bracelet transmission is picked up by one of the floor monitors for more than thirty seconds, a fall alarm is sent to the front desk.”
    “It detects if the resident has fallen down using vertical proximity analysis then.”
    “Exactly. You have done work, haven’t you?”
    “Just a little,” Eat confirmed. In fact, Eat had done a lot with proximity detection and some of his software was in use