Emergency room care?

Question:

Anyone who's on the "inside" that can lend me some insight on this: my girlfriend has gone to the "best hospital in western massachusetts", Baystate Medical Center, and had a malfunctioning gal bladder, was crying and in excruciating pain, and had to wait 5 hours just to be seen by someone, when some teenie bopper came in because of a bar fight, and was seen almost immediately...does it depend on your insurance, like the movie "John Q" says? My girlfriend has state insurance, and i can't speak for the barfighters, but, does it depend on your insurance, the order in which you're called?

Answers:
Emergency room personnel see patients based on giving the most life-threatening emergencies care first. The staff can quickly become overwhelmed and the delays get longer and longer. Even though your girlfriend had significant pain, there were likely life-threatening emergencies ahead of her. Any life-threatening emergency that comes through the door at any point during her visit would only delay her care longer. Almost all of the emergency room medical care personnel in the US do not gather the insurance information from the patient. A clerical person prepares that info and has no control over the patient flow through the emergency room. Finally, regarding the situation you mention of the bar fighters, they may have had potentially life-threatening emergencies which may not have been obvious to you. Other times people like you described are shuttled to an interior holding area away from other patients so they do not annoy the real sick people. The bar fighters may not have gotten prompt care; they may have merely gotten shoved into a more secluded holding are where they awaited their turns like everyone else.

Really, so much factors in. How busy was it that night? Do they have divisions of the emergency room, such as true emergency, fast track (probably where your teenie bopper ended up, where they can be treated and released), children's rooms, etc.

It does make people mad, but if there are divisions, they are for a reason. One moves the crowd of parents with their kids with common colds through rapidly to get them out of the way, freeing up other resources. You probably couldn't see from the waiting room, but there may have been a five-car accident clogging up the part of the ER where your girlfriend needed to have access to the proper care for her. Each division has a different set of supplies specific for their needs, and your girlfriend probably needed an IV started, IV fluids, pain management, imaging studies, etc.

Hope that helps. The biggest problems with ERs everywhere is that people take their kids there instead of to their pediatrician's office, and that just all kind of congests things.

It's not the insurance! Those who care for you in the ER don't get paid by insuirance companies and so insurance only matters to hospital administrators, private MD's, and case managers.

What will get you treated more quickly.come in by ambulance with complaints of chest pain, cause a scene in the waiting room, call the hospital administrator or nursing supervisor from the waiting room and complain or threaten to call the state board of health. Request hospital to transfer you to another hospital for treatment.

The recent 911 call scenario in California was very interesting. If that happened in my hospital, I am sure I would get calls from many and immediately.

The insurance scenario you describe is the root of all that is wrong with our current healthcare system. Keep that in mind when you vote in 2008! The problem with ER's is not just that people go there for nonemergent treatment. Rather it is that they HAVE to go there because of their insurance issues.

Pain is the single most common reason for anyone to seek medical treatment (else they come by ambulance) and it seems as though it is given the least consideration in the ER!

I have the inside info as I respond to such complaints and situations in my work. I could talk for hours about the "unhealthy" healthcare system, but I will save it for specific questions

I'm an emergency room nurse. I hope I can answer your question. When you present to a hospital for emergency care, your initial assessment is usually done by a RN ( not always, and you need to ask). He/she will ask a number of questions, followed by a physical assessement. He/she will then made a determination on the acuity of your personal situation. Patients are usually prioritized by assessing the ABC's. Airway , Breathing and circulation . This is then followed by a system by system check. Paying special attention to signs and symptoms in areas that may be signaling a life threatening situation. Although, your girlfriend was in excruiating pain, and gall bladder pain rates right up there in the top ten; at that time it was not deem to be life threatening. Patients are never prioritized according to insurance. Emergency rooms are for life and death situation, where immediate intervention is needed to maintain or restore the quality of life. Your girl friend did the right thing by seeking emergency intervention for her situation. Now a word on the , "teenie bopper" who came in because of a bar fight. Usually in any fight there is physical/ blunt trauma . The person(s) who have been drinking alcohol is already in a state of altered mental status, and may not be able to communicate body changes or discomfort. She may also have head trauma. Bleeding, swelling or herniation of the brain which, when coupled with alcohol makes a change in alert or awakness difficult to differentiate. Thinking someone is intoxicated and snoring when they have substained damage to the part of the brain controlling breathing may appear similar. She may have substained trauma to a vital internal organ which could have ruptured, been punctured or bleeding into another body cavity. I think you get the picture. I am sorry for your unsettling experience, and I hope your girlfriend all the best in her recovery.

Emergency room care?

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