Seriously? The ER? For that?

[monarc23]

My mom was dying (litterally) I think it was 2 years ago... we drove her (hubby and I) to the ER..... a family was there..their son had the sniffles, another parent and her son had the sniffles and they were there....we sat there, me in tears while my mom gasped for air and tried to stay concious.... and FINNALLY about an hour later when we were called up tot the front to state our case they rused her to the back with everyone glaring at us while we went...DUH it WAS A REAL emergency...sniffles are not!!!

After a couple day stay in the hosptial and some major meds the fluid around her heart and lungs deminished and she was able to come home...the docs said she was VERY close to death..and what a shame that she could have died because of the back logged rediculousness of people coming in for every bump bruise and sniffle.

I dont go to the doctors unless it's absolutely necc......and i dont even get flu shots... *gasp* LOL.

 

[dave_Cash69]

maybe it was the swine flu?


but the tattoo is a bit ridic.
if you cant handle the pain
dnt get a flippin tat

 

[Catalina]

Since the first of the year, we've started staffing 2 doctors round the clock in our ER.
The volume of patients has at least doubled in the last 6 months. There use to be evening shifts when you would see 5-6 patients - now we are seeing 8 patients an hour (every bed filled - save 2 trauma beds) and there are 7 patients waiting in the waiting room.
The wait to be seen is about 2-3 hours (triage level 3 to 5).
Level 1 and 2 still get seen right away, of course.

Last night we had 5 people come in with head lice. That's NOT an emergency!

Administration says the economy's driving patient volumes. Clinics can turn people away, if they don't pay their bill.
But a not for profit hospital can't. However, in the last year, in this area, 3 big hospitals were sold to companies i.e. they are now for profit hospitals.

Maybe this is why our patient volume has increased?

Edited:spelling

 

[PotterWatch]

Yeah, my point really was that it is incredibly irritating that people use the ER for things that really are not emergencies. Even more irritating when people go to the ER for things that don't even need to be seen by a doctor (the sniffles, head lice

). The family who came in with the sniffles was gone 3hrs later, my husband watched them all get into their car and leave. So obviously they really did just have the sniffles and nothing more serious. Are there people who really do need to be in the ER and may not look like it to me? Sure. But I think it is awful that people who don't need to be there use it like a regular doctor's office and therefore cause people with true emergencies to wait longer.

 

[australorpchick]

Try living in a border town, it's even worse. Back when we lived in San Diego, the closest Kaiser ER was 30 minutes away. They built a new Kaiser only 10 minutes away, but did not include an ER, why, because that would make it the closest ER to the border. The current ER closest to the border was always inundated with people from Mexico coming in with the sniffles and not paying any bills.

On another note, if you have what feels to be the worse headache in the world, it may be worth it to go to the ER. Several years ago, my BIL called me and asked me to take him to the ER. He had a really bad headache and hadn't hit his head. I drove him (along with my 3 year old twins) to the ER and waited with him. I saw so many people with minor issues getting in ahead of him. Like some elderly woman complaining of seeing people. (Honestly, watch Sixth Sense and get over it or schedule an appointment with a Psych doctor.) Meanwhile my BIL is bright red in the face, the lights and any noise made the pain worse. It took 4 hours until he was finally put into a bed and that was with me complaining to several nurses and doctors. It took a couple more hours until he was seen by a doctor. Turned out he had a brain aneurysm. He's fine now, but it took a lot of work on the three SIL's part to make sure he received adequate care. I would hate to think what would have happened if he didn't have family to help him.

 

[Chicken Fruit]

My old neighbor has a one year old, only baby so far, and she calls the squad for EVERYTHING. And makes them drag her and the baby to the ER. Scraped knee, bloody nose, bump on the head (i mean bump, not a bash to the skull, i mean sitting and fell over and bumped her head) a strange rash, anything.

its the most ridiculous thing ever.

one night she was here at our house, baby was about 7 months old, and had some dried snot on her nose. this gal proceeded to hork away at it with a tissue and her finger nail, over, and over and over trying to get it all out. Well eventually it started to bleed a little. SHE FREAKED THE HELL OUT. called her husband who's a trooper and goes "I DONT KNOW it just started GUSHING, and it WONT STOP! I think iam gonig ot call the squad..."

Me and my husband seriously started laughing at her. Asked her if she was serious. Some blood on a tissue so she's calling the squad? Does she not know that everyone in the village laughs?

I mean come on.

That baby has spent more nights in the hospital than at home I imagine.

 

[sangel4you]

beak, sometimes we have a triage nurse, but we have been having budget issues (ER expansion started without even having the funding for it- but let's not even go there...grrrr) and can't afford to have a nurse strictly for triage purposes most times. Plus the problem there lies in the guy sitting quietly with his abd pain and ruptured appendix is trying to be tough guy because HE DOESNT KNOW what is wrong either but figures there are ppl sicker than him with a stomachache and so he gets triaged as another possible stomach flu, whatever...when really he's getting sicker and sicker with each passing minute. So in cases like that...a triage isn't going to do a darn thing. And ppl like that (the extremely noble and patient ones who are REALLY sick) are just as common as those who abuse the system and so you can only imagine the cluster mess that causes when they combine.

 

[JumpWithPanache]

I've got a good ER story. I went in because a yearling colt had reared and struck me in the back of the head. I had a five inch long, half inch wide GASH in the back of my head, bleeding all over the place. After checking in they gave me an ice pack, wheelchair and a spot to wait. Two hours later I was wheeled back into the examining room to wait another hour before a doc got in to look at my head. THEN they sent in a student on rotations to but the seven stitches in. Oh by the way, the student was shown how to do the first stitch by the doc, who proceeded to leave. And yes, the student told me she'd done stitches but this was teh first time she'd stitched a head wound.

The two things that PO'd me were 1) the head trauma waits behind the sniffles since I wasn't seeing double and 2) the stitcher makes it known that she has no experience. Makes me glad my mom was an ER nurse and she never bothered to take us in for anything.

 

[AHappychick]

most ER's are a disaster, my DH went into one with a broken leg, and came out in a body bag. Thank God there is a good childrens hospital 20 minutes away, and it is only there because a child died and the parents donated a huge amount of money to make it happen. No matter what with my ds I bypass 4 hospitals to get to that one.

 

[kinnip]

I just had my own ER encounter from hell, see my Lyme disease thread for details of my diagnosis. The first time, I went in with a horrible headache, joint aches, confusion, numbness on one side of my face. I explained that I suspected Lyme disease. They said that they won't handle Lyme disease. I'd have to make an appointment with my primary care physician. The nurse also made it plain that she didn't think it was Lyme because I wasn't running a fever and didn't have an actual tick to show them. (The fever is the first stage, it goes down hill from there.) They told me they'd be happy to treat my headache, then they put me in a cubicle, turned off the lights and left for two hours. No one even checked on me to make sure I hadn't died or succumbed to full blown meningitis. Around me I could here doctors joking with patients. If you're well enough to joke, you can wait long enough for someone to see if the person next to you is still breathing. When everyone decided to stop for lunch in the room across the hall, I left. No one even tried to stop me. I'm sure they figured they cure my headache with a dark room.
Twelve hours later, I was back and in really bad shape. This time they saw me in a timely manner, but still refused to treat anything that might be Lyme. I had an appointment with my primary care physician, but it wasn't until 9:45 in the morning. I just didn't feel I could wait that long. At least the doc took pity on me and gave me a shot of Toradol and some Vicodin before shoving me out the door.
Next time I'm sick I'll take an appointment with any doc who's available. The ER here is stupid. The only thing they seem to be concerned with is seeing people who may or may not have swine flu. On my second trip, I sat next to a girl in the waiting room who was writhing in pain, crying and bleeding from her hand. She had a bag of ice, so I'm guessing she nipped off some finger. The guy with the earache and an attitude got in before her. He had three women with him who were taking turns yelling at the nurses about how unfair it was that he had to wait, and how they were going to another ER one town over. He spent most of the time outside smoking. Doesn't sound like an emergency to me.