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I Youngest Daughter to the E.R. Last Night


Perchoutofwater
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I took my youngest to the E.R. last night. She need stitches in her head. She pulled a book case down on her self while climbing int to get a figurine. She's fine, but needed stitched up. So I take her to the E.R. The waiting room is completely full, it's literally standing room only. Out of all of those people only 4 including my daughter actually had an emergency. The rest either had a stomach virus, or a cold, and were obviously free loaders. That really pisses me off. It shouldn't have taken 4 hours for my daughter to get 10 stitches when there are only 3 other people with anything close to an emergency. I can't wait to see the bill, to see how much the iodine and neosporin are going to cost me, I know they jack the prices of that stuff up to make for all the people who don't have insurance and come into the E.R. for a stomach virus. Sorry, I just had to rant.

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people us the ER as their personal DR office. IT's sad but a fact of life.

 

 

The best way to get in and out really fast is to tell them you (or your child) is having a hard time breathing.

 

You will be admitted right away.

 

Then you can just say "Well she wasn't breathing very well when the book case came down but seems fine now." Once you are in there they will patch you up and send you off.

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People in Texas go to the ER with stomach virsuses? What a bunch of Rosie O'Donnell.

 

Oh, and glad to hear your daughter's OK. :D:D

 

 

Every Mexican that has dog paddled his way across the Rio Grande of the Rio Grande. You would think they would know you can't take anything other than fluids for one. People use the E.R's down here as a primary care physician if they don't have insurance.

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Perch, some of your observations are true.

 

Many poor people (read no medical insurance) and idiots use the ED as a primary care physician. Thus, your wait would have been shorter had some/most of the ED patrons appropriately used an outpatient health care provider instead of the ED.

 

Possible solution: Universal health care I don't know whether or not I want that.

 

That being said, all EDs use a triage system where the "sickest" get seen first. It is not first come, first served. In my experience it's not a perfect system but it works in general. Thus, your conclusion that only 3 people there had real emergencies is probably not right. Probably all of the people who were seen before your daughter were in worse shape than her.

Edited by MojoMan
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hmmm, on Monday night we had to take my 1-year old to the ER for a stomach virus. He'd had diarrhea for several days and then for the last 24 hours had pretty much instantly vomited up anything that we gave him. We called his doctor's afterhours service and the nurse went through a checklist and then said that we should take him to the ER instead of bringing him in to the afterhours office.

 

(Thankfully he seems to be doing much better now (he still has diarrhea, but he hasn't thrown up recently and he is again having wet diapers).)

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Perch, some of your observations are true.

 

Many poor people (read no medical insurance) and idiots use the ED as a primary care physician. Thus, your wait would have been shorter had some/most of the ED patrons appropriately used an outpatient health care provider instead of the ED.

 

Possible solution: Universal health care I don't know whether or not I want that.

 

That being said, all EDs use a triage system where the "sickest" get seen first. It is not first come, first served. In my experience it's not a perfect system but it works in general. Thus, your conclusion that only 3 people there had real emergencies is probably not right. Probably all of the people who were seen before your daughter were in worse shape than her.

 

 

We were actually taken back right after the triage nurse checked her out, it was getting to the triage nurse that took so long, that and waiting on the CT results, and the doctor to come stitch her up. The whole point of the rant though wasn't necessarily the wait so much is it was the misuse of the E.R. by freeloaders, and the fact that I will probably pay $50 for a 3 ounce bottle of iodine, to make up what the hospital is losing on the freeloaders.

 

I actually agree the only solution is universal health care, and while I'm against it in principle, the reality of it is there are just too many freeloaders in this country now, so we might as well go to it. At least they would pay something in the form of taxes.

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I know what you mean Perch. A few months ago I had to take my youngest to the ER when she fell. She had busted up her mouth and was bleeding pretty bad, but we were mainly worried because she fell face first and had a sort of spaced out look on her face. We literally had to stand in a single file line to give the lady insurance info for about 25 minutes. The only time they got in any hurry was when we told them she had vomitted.

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hmmm, on Monday night we had to take my 1-year old to the ER for a stomach virus. He'd had diarrhea for several days and then for the last 24 hours had pretty much instantly vomited up anything that we gave him. We called his doctor's afterhours service and the nurse went through a checklist and then said that we should take him to the ER instead of bringing him in to the afterhours office.

 

(Thankfully he seems to be doing much better now (he still has diarrhea, but he hasn't thrown up recently and he is again having wet diapers).)

 

 

It's one thing to take an infant to the ER for a stomach virus, as they can become quickly to dehydrated, and don't realize that they need to get fluids in themselves. I can understand that. It's the adults going for a stomach virus or a sinus infection that piss me off.

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Of course, when I had to take my wife to a different ER 6 weeks ago because she was bleeding (associated with her pregnancy), we had to wait more than 3 hours to get into a room (after the triage nurse had told us that if there is something wrong with the baby, there really wouldn't be anything they could do to save it). That was not fun.

Edited by wiegie
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From this thread it seems that the expectation is that people go to the ER only when they have a serious problem. I'm not sure that matches reality.

 

A few months ago my knee swelled up and got worse throughout the day. I called my primary care physician, he referred me to a specialist. The specialist couldn't see me for several weeks. When I told him that I could barely walk and couldn't wait that long he told me to go to ER. I get the feeling that that was not a unique situation

 

By the way, it's a good thing I went. I had a serious infection and had to be admitted to the hospital.

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That bites.

 

I once took my mother to the ER because of chest pains...they sent her to the front desk to get the billing information. While there they stopped helping her while everyone figured out who ordered what and who owes who money when lunch arrived. I was pissed! Turns out she had a heart attack and they worried about who ordered the ravioli. :D

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many people who work are not provided insurance. many who work cannot afford it. however, they make too much to qualify for medicaid. their only recourse is to go to an emergency room for treatment.

 

We have several choices:

 

1. Leave the system as it is.

 

2. universal health care

 

3. you're sick, you have an infection, etc. and you don't have insurance--too f'n bad. sucks to be you, hope you don't die.

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many people who work are not provided insurance. many who work cannot afford it. however, they make too much to qualify for medicaid. their only recourse is to go to an emergency room for treatment.

 

We have several choices:

 

1. Leave the system as it is.

 

2. universal health care

 

3. you're sick, you have an infection, etc. and you don't have insurance--too f'n bad. sucks to be you, hope you don't die.

 

yup that be it

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Our pcp sent my youngest to the ER at 4:30pm when we called and told him he had a 104 temperature. I asked if we could come in so he could see him and he said no, my office closes at 5. :D

 

 

I'd be finding another pediatrician. Years ago my son had the same problem. We called our pediatrician on a Saturday afternoon. He was paged, called us back from a party, and met us at his office.

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I can't wait to see the bill, to see how much the iodine and neosporin are going to cost me, I know they jack the prices of that stuff up to make for all the people who don't have insurance and come into the E.R. for a stomach virus. Sorry, I just had to rant.

 

 

Sadly, your best bet would likely have been to also say that you have no insurance.

 

A little known trick, if you plead "no insurance", the billing department for the hospital will likely bill you pennies on the dollar, thinking it is the only way they are going to get something out of you. If your bill would have been, say, $3000 for everything, they likely will bill you $300-600, hoping you can at least pay that.

 

If the bill is indeed for the full amount, just submit it to your insurance company as you normally would.

 

Our health insurance industry is set up to help the needy, sho often take advantage of it. So rather than pay into it, you can try the above, and let hte system work for you. There is nothing illegal about not using your own insurance if it is cheaper to let the hospital just bill you less than your deductable.

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Sucks. We have an urgent care center in the small town where I live. That's where we've taken our son for most things. We took him to the larger hospital ER when he had croup awhile back. Since he was having a hard time breathing, we didn't have to wait too long.

 

I don't pretend to know the answer to solving our country's health care woes, but I'm an American and entitled to my uninformed opinion:

 

1) Get rid of the medical commercials and advertisements. Drug/Medical companies spend a lot of money promoting drugs/treatments to the general public. Joe Six-Pack should get his medical knowledge from his doctor, not a beaver talking with Abraham Lincoln.

 

2) Aggressively pursue people and companies who abuse the Medicaid/Medicare system through fraud and deceit.

 

3) Encourage employers to provide insurance to employees. If that's not feasible, offer a gov't program that people pay to join for catastrophic care. Heck, I'm a generous guy. If they want to volunteer x number of hours a year instead of paying, I'm cool with that too.No freebies.

 

4) Government supported coverage to children of parents who are unable to support them.

 

5) Fix our food supply problems that create unhealthy food that creates unhealthy people.

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Our pcp sent my youngest to the ER at 4:30pm when we called and told him he had a 104 temperature. I asked if we could come in so he could see him and he said no, my office closes at 5. :D

 

 

We have the girl's pediatrician's home phone number and pager. He's actually gone in and opened up his office on a Sunday afternoon for us before. I probably would have just called him, except he doesn't have the radiology equipment in his office that the ER does, and she had a huge knot on her head about 1" from where she had the gash. REZ, you definitely need to get a new pediatrician.

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Sucks. We have an urgent care center in the small town where I live.

 

We have direct care, but that does do stitches, and what not. I'm not sure if they have a CT, though I doubt it. It didn't matter, they closed 10 minutes before it happened. I called them first.

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