Emergency Room Visits

[Keith]

Unfortunately, I have had way too many visits to emergency rooms. Either myself, my wife, my friends, or my relatives....someone is always going to the emergency room.

Each time I have visited an emergency room, my wait has usually been around 4-5 hours.

Granted, each time I was there, I wasn't dying or anything, but I did have an emergency.

Case in point.....the last time I went to the emergency room, I had sliced my index finger, almost to the bone. It required 8 stitches. When my wife and I arrived, the emergency room was packed.

Why were these people here? Were there that many emergencies?

Yes and no. It all depends on what you consider an emergency. Was my finger, bleeding profusely, more of an emergency than someone that had the flu, or a bad cold? I think so.

As I sat in the waiting room, applying pressure to my bleeding finger, I had to hold my breath many times because those around me were coughing their heads off. Just what I needed. I go to the emergency room for stitches and leave with the flu.

There are many after hours clinics that these people can go to for medical attention, when they have a cold, flu, or a stomach virus.

To me, these kinds of illnesses are not considered emergencies, and that emergency rooms should be used only for emergencies. Bad bleeding, chest pains, and broken bones, are a few injuries that I would consider emergencies.

I realize that many people do not have insurance, and that their way of getting medical attention is to go to emergency rooms.....however, I don't think it is fair to the others who have actual emergencies. I don't have the answers, but I know it is frustrating.

[Patrick]

Unfortunately, many people use the ER for things that aren't emergencies. People go there for temperatures, coughs, etc. Personally, I think we need stricter rules on what the ER should be used for. I don't think we should be seeing sniffles and coughs in the ER. That's what family docs are for. But, we're held liable if we don't see the patients and something goes wrong. So we have to see everyone that comes through the door. Still not sure why someone spends hundreds of dollars to treat a sniffle at an ER when they can go to a family doc for $60.

[Oki_Man5]

Keith, I did not see the slice in the finger, but it seems to me maybe a band aid would have saved this trip to an overused emergency room.

Now, you said: "Unfortunately, I have had way too many visits to emergency rooms. Either myself, my wife, my friends, or my relatives....someone is always going to the emergency room."

So are you overusing the emergency room?

Admittedly, over the past untold number of years, I took my wife to the emergency room one morning (That is one time of use of emergency room facilities in I do not know how long it has been since we went to an emergency room.) when she thought maybe she was having a heart attack; I am not sure what was wrong, but it turned out not to be a heart attack. Knocks wood---TY Daisy and OSUPA for lending your foreheads. LOL

How about everyomne else: "How often do you go yourself or take someone to an emergency room?"

[Keith]

Keith, I did not see the slice in the finger, but it seems to me maybe a band aid would have saved this trip to an overused emergency room.

Now, you said: "Unfortunately, I have had way too many visits to emergency rooms. Either myself, my wife, my friends, or my relatives....someone is always going to the emergency room."

So are you overusing the emergency room?

Admittedly, over the past untold number of years, I took my wife to the emergency room one morning (That is one time of use of emergency room facilities in I do not know how long it has been since we went to an emergency room.) when she thought maybe she was having a heart attack; I am not sure what was wrong, but it turned out not to be a heart attack. Knocks wood---TY Daisy and OSUPA for lending your foreheads. LOL

How about everyomne else: "How often do you go yourself or take someone to an emergency room?"

A band-aid?
Nope, a band-aid would have done no good. I went through a half roll of paper towels just trying to control the bleeding. Even in the energency room they had to give me a large rag to keep it from bleeding all over the place. Plus, I really don't think a band-aid would help a cut that required 8 stitches.

Do I overuse the emergency room? No I hate going there, but just ask Patrick.....I am an accident prone person, however, many times my injuries don't require immediate attention. Actually, I can remember three times in the last 20 years, that I have been to the emergency room for myself.

I was working on a house with some other friends, and someone lost control of a metal ladder, and it fell and hit dead center on my head. It almost knocked me out. I was getting dizzy and nauseated, and my head started to swell. To the ER I went.......had a slight concussion.

I was playing a game with some teenagers, and chasing after them (yeah, I know...I am too old to be chasing teens), and I tripped and fell and broke my right wrist. After surgery, and having pins and screws installed, I came out just fine.

Then there was the last time when I sliced my finger and had to get 8 stitches.

The rest of my ER visits have been either with my wife (who has blood pressure problems and bad migranes) or with other friends. Why friends ask me to take them to the ER, I will never know.

[Midtowner]

Keith.. what's wrong with you.. you should have just put some superglue on that cut and called it a day.



Seriously though, I've found that the emergency room is one of the worst places to go. They hit you up with tons of hidden charges, they make you wait around forever, and they get the diagnosis wrong about half of the time.

Case in point, my father was in the emergency room a few years back, he had fallen and really had his leg wrenched. The emergency room doc (a DO from OSU) did some x-rays and said that it was only a sprain, no need to worry.

The next day, he went to his family doc for a second opinion and of course, without even taking an x-ray, it was quickly ascertained that the leg had been broken.

This is just one of many 'wonderful' experiences with the emergency room. Unless your situation is life threatening, it's not an emergency. Go somewhere else

Patrick, you also forgot to mention that Emergency rooms don't take money up front to help you. Weekend clinics do. Many go to the Emergency Room with no intention of paying.

[MadMonk]

I've only been ER once when my daughter had a high fever that we couldn't get down with Tylenol/Ibuprofin. We called our doctor and he recommended that we take her. She couldn't keep anything down and was becoming very dehydrated and lethargic. I was scared to death. It was a terrible downward spiral of giving medicine, having her throw it up and the fever kept creeping upward. We waited for what seemed like forever. I don't think I've ever felt so helpless. When she finally was seen, they admitted her to the hospital for overnight observation and gave her IV fluids. Within 30 minutes of the IV she was doing much better.

In general, I've avoided the ER as much as possible due to the fact that apparently "emergency" means something different to me than to the hospital. Why isn't this place staffed better? Its a joke to go to the ER and sit around for hours. If it can wait until morning, you are much better off at one of the urgent care clinics around the city.

[Faith]

I have made several trips to the emergency room with my children, parents, and husband. My husband and children have really bad asthma. When the inhalers and breathing treatment at home doesn't work I have to go to the ER if our doctors office is closed at that time. We have to have immediate attention of steriods or breathing treatments so they can breath easily to sleep that night.

We generally have to wait about 30 minutes before we are called back. I wouldn't go to SW Medical Center Emergency Room if you have a true emergency. They are understaffed and no matter what time of the day it is it will take along time just to see a triage nurse. My son had a bad stomach virus and was becoming very dehydrated. It took almost 2 hours before he got seen. They gave him medication for nausea and an IV of fluids. We stayed overnight in the hospital until he got better.

I have noticed people in the ER with the young children who look like they just have a cold. They cough their germs and blow their noses everywhere so that the sickness just spreads. This one couple I seen had two children they were wanting to be seen by a doctor. This was a few months ago. Their children had no socks or shoes on and it was really cold outside. No wonder their children were so sick.

[Patrick]

Like I said, if it's a true emergency, I think going to the ER is valid.

Problem is, go to any emergency room in the country and you'll see that over half the folks there are there for coughs, sneezes, sniffles, etc. We need better control over this.

Problem is, like Midtowner said, many go because they don't take money up front. Thus, a person can get treated, then ignore the bill later. Sure, it goes on to collections, but those people don't care. Their credit history is already trashed anyways.

[Patrick]

Maybe the answer is having more evening care clinics for stuff like what I mentioned above, and leaving the ER for simply emergencies. Medicine will have to adapt to this eventually.

By the way, patients in the ER are usually seen based on priority. It isn't first come first serve. If you come in with sniffles, you're probably going to wait a long time. Serves them right.

[gbyte]

I haven't had to be sent to the emergency room for a few years when I nearly sliced off the end of my thumb (went into the bone also). I was actually taken first to the emergency room of the hospital just 3-4 miles from my parent's house but after doing a quick initial cleaning and bandaging of the wound our insurance would not pay for any more. So we ended up having to go down to Mercy and proceed to wait for ~2-3 hrs (can't remember the exact wait now) just for them to reclean, scrub, and put some internal and external stitches in my thumb.

There were a few people there that looked like they might have something more serious but thinking back to the point now is that alot of the people's insurance places will not necessarily allow claims from the after hours clinics without alot of work arounds and bullying them. So it's easier for them to go to an emergency room and just wait it out (which I think this aspect is really retarded that since there are no after hours clinis on your plan it's best to hit ER for stuff that is not as serious).

With the high cost of health care now in the US I can understand wanting insurance to pay for whatever needs to be done but I believe there definitely needs to be some sort of changes to go into the system but these would have to be very thoroughly thought out and would mean many, many changes to how everything currently works in the health care industry.