A visit to the emergency room

I broke my wrist once and saw a doc within 10 minutes. I did have to wait 2 hours for the bone doc to get to the hospital but they fixed it that night. So no complaints. But I live also live in a small town, about 40k.
 
shoe said:
LOL, I have some advice that might help next time. Next time, as soon as you walk thru the emergency room doors, start panting heavily and occasionally make the same sound the movie director made in the Godfather when he found the horse's severed head in his bed. I've seen it work.
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Please don't do this. You will NOT endear yourself to the staff who are trying to triage the patients in order of severity. Similarly coming in by ambulance without a life/limb threatening emergency in order to get seen faster is not appreciated. Imagine you (or a loved one) has a true emergency and your care is delayed because of someone trying to game the system.

DD
 
Most of the knocks on our Canadian medicare system are about the waiting times,looks like OP is getting the worst of both worlds ,having to wait and having to pay.
 
My ER experience both for myself and accompanying friends and family the wait time has ranged from 10 minutes to perhaps 40 minutes. Thankfully, I've never had to go to an ER in Texas. My Mom once broke her in Moscow in the mid 80s, that took several hours to get treated.
 
Good grief, these stories are awful. If this is the type of service we get with our medical system I can't understand why so many are opposed to a single payer national system. It couldn't be worse than this. When I took my daughter's friend to an ER in Amsterdam the service was great.
 
I don't have source in front of me but in the last several years wait times in emergency rooms in the US have increased quite a bit. Among the worst, as of 2006, hospitals in Arizona , Maryland , Utah , New York, and Florida had wait times near to exceeding 4 hours. These numbers are somewhat misleading because they represent an average. Someone with a heart attack may be seen right away but someone with a lesser emergency may wait 8 hours. Also, time of day and happenstance cause a lot of variation in wait time. Nevertheless, these averages are terrible.
 
FinanceDude said:
According to many Texans, it's STILL a REPUBLIC, NOT a state!! ;)
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Or, at the very least, retains the right to become a republic again -- or break up into as many as five states.

This may have been the case originally, but I doubt either would be allowed to happen without a serious fight.
 
ziggy29 said:
I know that legally, but many Texans seem to think so. Witness Governor Hair's blustering about possible secession a few weeks ago.
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I thought for a second you said "witless" Governor Hair. Of course that could have been interpreted as a political statement and I know you wouldn't go there...:)
 
LOL! said:
I do not live in a big city. I live in a nice suburb of about 100K population with several hospitals that are very good if you are in labor and about to deliver a baby.
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I live in a nice suburb of about 100K in the same metropolitan area (assumption/belief based on your other comment about teaching at TMC). Twenty years ago, when it was not so built up locally, an ER visit was a real pain in the butt. One old hospital and the wait was forever. I think some of the problem there was too little hospital trying to cope with a booming population.

Fast forward to the present time and we have three major branches of the local big names (Methodist, Memorial Hermann and St. Luke's). Recent ER visits in the last several years have been downright satisfactory. The Princess and our oldest son were the patients and both were in pain when we arrived (kidney stones for DW and broken leg for DS) and they felt that they were seen in an expeditious fashion. I was there as the hand-holder-in-chief, billpayer, and patient rep, and I was impressed by how quickly they moved us through the system, how well we were informed about what we was going on, and how nice everyone was.

I wonder if some of this might be the choice of which "brand" of hospital you choose. Our experiences were at Methodist and since those visits I've talked with friends who have family members working for that system. They all have said that the corporation stresses customer/patient satisfaction as their primary goal and goes to great pains to have happy employees delivering that care.
 
When my DW and I had our accident last year. We were treated immediately with prompt and professional care. I never waited so little in an emergency room setting. This included x rays and several discussions with the DR.

Could be because we were brought in by ambulance.
 
...the treaty under which Texas joined the U.S. provides that it could be divided into five separate states. But it is not empowered to leave the union, a question that the Civil War seems to have settled once and for all.
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Now that General Sherman has retired, perhaps a different outcome might be expected?
 
Martha said:
I don't have source in front of me but in the last several years wait times in emergency rooms in the US have increased quite a bit. Among the worst, as of 2006, hospitals in Arizona , Maryland , Utah , New York, and Florida had wait times near to exceeding 4 hours. These numbers are somewhat misleading because they represent an average. Someone with a heart attack may be seen right away but someone with a lesser emergency may wait 8 hours. Also, time of day and happenstance cause a lot of variation in wait time. Nevertheless, these averages are terrible.
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The problem is multifactorial The main culprits are fewer Emergency Dept's, (they lose money in most locales), increased number of ED visits and fewer inpatient beds for admitted patients to go to. These all lead to overcrowded ED's with increased wait times. Now try to imagine if a true flu pandemic were to strike - it would be a national disaster as there is no capacity to handle it.

DD
 
DblDoc said:
The problem is multifactorial The main culprits are fewer Emergency Dept's, (they lose money in most locales), increased number of ED visits and fewer inpatient beds for admitted patients to go to. These all lead to overcrowded ED's with increased wait times. Now try to imagine if a true flu pandemic were to strike - it would be a national disaster as there is no capacity to handle it.

DD
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Yes, I am aware of hospitals that have looked into conversion into specialty hospitals with no ED.
 
DblDoc said:
The problem is multifactorial The main culprits are fewer Emergency Dept's, (they lose money in most locales), increased number of ED visits and fewer inpatient beds for admitted patients to go to. These all lead to overcrowded ED's with increased wait times. Now try to imagine if a true flu pandemic were to strike - it would be a national disaster as there is no capacity to handle it.

DD
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I find it hard to believe this line of reasoning is true.

What caused these to happen?
 
Anyone anywhere near the front lines knows this is a longstanding and spiraling disaster. Lack ok insurance coverage contributes greatly as patients use ERs for primary care. There is an obligation (legal and moral) to see all comers and "triage" is very difficult in this setting (it's easier, ironically, on the battlefield). There is little or no reimbursement for many visits. There is defensive practice including big league testing for issues which might be approached more gingerly by a PCP with little or no loss of quality, in part due to the buck-stops-here demands of all parties.

I do everything I can to help my patients avoid the ER other than in true life-endangering issues. The ER docs are doing a heroic job but are in a very tough situation.
 
Well, boys and girls, my wife says I have 12 new screws inside my body and a hunk of metal to keep them company and close together.

Thanks for all the sympathy! It was a big help the last few days. I have also outlined a nice letter to the CEO of the hospital and will offer to take him to lunch to help improve his business. I hope he accepts ... maybe I can arrange food poisoning and take him to his own ER. :)
 
LOL! said:
Well, boys and girls, my wife says I have 12 new screws inside my body and a hunk of metal to keep them company and close together.

Thanks for all the sympathy! It was a big help the last few days. I have also outlined a nice letter to the CEO of the hospital and will offer to take him to lunch to help improve his business. I hope he accepts ... maybe I can arrange food poisoning and take him to his own ER. :)
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Glad to hear that you finally got the treatment you needed! Your post was indeed a horror story for those of us who THINK we are living in civilization and not out in the jungles of a third world country. One would hope that the CEO would respond with something beyond CYA, but who knows.

12 new screws and a hunk of metal? Whew! So much for getting through the metal detector at airports easily. What bone was it? Sounds like a fairly big one, or else the damage was such that very tiny screws were required.

Anyway, take care and thanks for the update.
 
Rich_in_Tampa said:
Anyone anywhere near the front lines knows this is a longstanding and spiraling disaster. Lack ok insurance coverage contributes greatly as patients use ERs for primary care. There is an obligation (legal and moral) to see all comers and "triage" is very difficult in this setting (it's easier, ironically, on the battlefield). There is little or no reimbursement for many visits. There is defensive practice including big league testing for issues which might be approached more gingerly by a PCP with little or no loss of quality, in part due to the buck-stops-here demands of all parties.
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"There is an obligation (legal and moral) to see all comers" - this is where the real market fails. There is no such thing as a "cash/insurance" line and an "uninsured/indigent" line. That is not how the triage is done. In a strictly market based environment without the legal obligation to treat all and the legal liability for failure to treat, the "cash/insurance" customers would get service first then the "uninsured/indigent" patients may get service the doc/hospital is feeling charitable.

What opponents of "socialized medicine" or "universal healthcare" fail to realize is that the ER IS a form of universal healthcare. But a very inefficient form and one for which we all bear the costs (in the form of longer waits and higher costs for those that DO pay). It is rationing treatment at its best/worst.
 
LOL! said:
Well, boys and girls, my wife says I have 12 new screws inside my body and a hunk of metal to keep them company and close together.

Thanks for all the sympathy! It was a big help the last few days. I have also outlined a nice letter to the CEO of the hospital and will offer to take him to lunch to help improve his business. I hope he accepts ... maybe I can arrange food poisoning and take him to his own ER. :)
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LOL! - glad your getting better.

DD
 
LOL! said:
Well, boys and girls, my wife says I have 12 new screws inside my body and a hunk of metal to keep them company and close together.

Thanks for all the sympathy! It was a big help the last few days. I have also outlined a nice letter to the CEO of the hospital and will offer to take him to lunch to help improve his business. I hope he accepts ... maybe I can arrange food poisoning and take him to his own ER. :)
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Great to hear you are back in one piece, and kept your sense of humour!
 
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