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05-23-2009, 10:30 AM
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#21
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,764
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadbh
Thanks LOL. I hope you are feeling better.
Glad to know Texas is a country!!!
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Yeah so is California.
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05-23-2009, 11:54 AM
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#22
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 310
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LOL!
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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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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05-23-2009, 12:32 PM
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#23
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 12,654
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LOL,
I'm sorry for your awful ordeal, sitting in the ER for hours and hours with a bone sticking out and hurting you. You must be tough. I would probably have fainted (for real).
I can easily imagine being ignored if there are gunshot wounds and stabbing victims being brought in, but 7 hours, with a serious injury? Were you too strong and silent maybe? Like Shoe said...sometimes some acting may be justified for the sake of your own health!
Husband had an excellent experience, but it was in the middle of a weekday so the ER wasn't busy. He gashed his arm on broken glass (16 stitches required), was seen quickly (no acting required ), and a technician sewed up the gash so expertly that today, the scar is barely visible.
__________________
If you understood everything I say, you'd be me ~ Miles Davis
'There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ Christopher Morley.
Even a blind clock finds an acorn twice a day.
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05-23-2009, 12:33 PM
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#24
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Administrator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,124
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shoe
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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Last time I went to an ER was during the day after seeing my Dr. He thought I may have hepatitis and called ahead to let them know I was coming. Even so I was waiting about an hour when a sudden bout of nausea overcame me and I rushed to the bathroom, vomiting just before I got there. I was then seen immediately (ended up staying in for 3 days with malaria-like symptoms, but I'd just returned from Brussels, not well known as a malaria hot spot so they never really knew what I'd had)
That last episode was the only ER visit I've had in the USA. I did have 2 visits to ERs in the UK, once at about 7:30pm with a dislocated finger from a soccer injury and was seen pretty quickly, and the 2nd time was early on a Saturday morning and there was practical no one there and I commented on quiet it was - "just give it a couple of hours and they'll come streaming in off the soccer and rugby fields...."
I did take a Spanish colleague to the ER in the UK 2 years ago and was very impressed. We were on business for a few days and he got very sick late afternoon one day and was pretty sure it was a recurrence of a liver problem that needed immediate attention. These days there is a toll-free NHS phone number which I called (his english was very poor so I needed to translate). The nurse called ahead to the ER and told us to turn up and go to the corner of the room for those that appointments and press the button. This we did and he was seen immediately - about 7pm this was.
LOL, I hope you get well soon.
__________________
Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
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05-23-2009, 12:47 PM
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#25
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadbh
Glad to know Texas is a country!!!
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Well, its tourism department says it's like "a whole other country," so...
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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05-23-2009, 02:44 PM
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#26
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Central MS/Orange Beach, AL
Posts: 9,071
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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.
__________________
Retired 3/31/2007@52
Investing style: Full time wuss.
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05-24-2009, 08:21 AM
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#27
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,224
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shoe
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
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05-26-2009, 03:37 AM
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#28
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Montreal
Posts: 940
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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.
__________________
"Second star to the right and straight on till morning"
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05-26-2009, 04:12 AM
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#29
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 7,733
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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.
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05-26-2009, 06:02 AM
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#30
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,327
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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.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
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05-26-2009, 07:06 AM
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#31
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: minnesota
Posts: 13,228
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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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No more lawyer stuff, no more political stuff, so no more CYA
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05-26-2009, 08:29 AM
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#32
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,483
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadbh
Glad to know Texas is a country!!!
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According to many Texans, it's STILL a REPUBLIC, NOT a state!!
__________________
Consult with your own advisor or representative. My thoughts should not be construed as investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results (love that one).......:)
This Thread is USELESS without pics.........:)
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05-26-2009, 08:34 AM
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#33
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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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.
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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05-26-2009, 08:43 AM
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#34
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,021
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ziggy29
Or, at the very least, retains the right to become a republic again -- or break up into as many as five states.
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Republic, no. Multiple states, yes.
Quote:
...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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__________________
Numbers is hard
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05-26-2009, 08:49 AM
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#35
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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Quote:
Originally Posted by REWahoo
Republic, no. Multiple states, yes.
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I know that legally, but many Texans seem to think so. Witness Governor Hair's blustering about possible secession a few weeks ago.
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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05-26-2009, 08:52 AM
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#36
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,021
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ziggy29
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...
__________________
Numbers is hard
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05-26-2009, 10:44 AM
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#37
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Where the stars at night are big and bright
Posts: 2,847
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LOL!
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.
__________________
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it. - Andrew Jackson
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05-26-2009, 10:54 AM
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#38
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,764
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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.
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05-26-2009, 02:27 PM
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#39
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Hooverville
Posts: 22,983
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Quote:
...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?
__________________
"As a general rule, the more dangerous or inappropriate a conversation, the more interesting it is."-Scott Adams
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05-26-2009, 03:12 PM
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#40
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,224
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martha
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
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