peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,580
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Jan 13, 2019 14:02:26 GMT
My husband had a sunburn once and wanted me to take him to the ER. It wasn't blistering or oozing or anything - a garden variety sunburn. I told him I wouldn't waste their resources.
Since then we have figured out that he suffers from "hell's itch" - a condition where some people suffer terrible pain and itch when they get a moderate sunburn. After reading about it, I felt badly I was so cavalier about it; but I still wouldn't take him to the ER. He can't even look at a picture of someone sunburnt.
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Post by SockMonkey on Jan 13, 2019 15:35:34 GMT
I tend to not want to judge why anyone uses the ER. Often it's a situation where they have zero access to regular health care or are uneducated about how to access primary care doctors. Or, we do not have all the backstory or know what's actually wrong with someone. We just don't.
HOWEVER.
I took my husband to the ER once for kidney stone (which he's had many and it was necessary). He was in excruciating pain, pacing the lobby. Meanwhile, a man was loudly arguing on his phone with his mother about something and I heard him say, "I'm at the ER. I need to get my flu shot." Then I could HEAR his mother scream, "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't go to the ER for a flu shot!" He explained to her that he "didn't have time to go to Walgreens to get it."
That got some judgement and eye rolling from me.
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Post by freecharlie on Jan 13, 2019 15:47:01 GMT
I tend to not want to judge why anyone uses the ER. Often it's a situation where they have zero access to regular health care or are uneducated about how to access primary care doctors. Or, we do not have all the backstory or know what's actually wrong with someone. We just don't. HOWEVER. I took my husband to the ER once for kidney stone (which he's had many and it was necessary). He was in excruciating pain, pacing the lobby. Meanwhile, a man was loudly arguing on his phone with his mother about something and I heard him say, "I'm at the ER. I need to get my flu shot." Then I could HEAR his mother scream, "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't go to the ER for a flu shot!" He explained to her that he "didn't have time to go to Walgreens to get it." That got some judgement and eye rolling from me. I judge this. Not the person, but the situation.
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Post by SockMonkey on Jan 13, 2019 15:50:25 GMT
I tend to not want to judge why anyone uses the ER. Often it's a situation where they have zero access to regular health care or are uneducated about how to access primary care doctors. Or, we do not have all the backstory or know what's actually wrong with someone. We just don't. HOWEVER. I took my husband to the ER once for kidney stone (which he's had many and it was necessary). He was in excruciating pain, pacing the lobby. Meanwhile, a man was loudly arguing on his phone with his mother about something and I heard him say, "I'm at the ER. I need to get my flu shot." Then I could HEAR his mother scream, "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't go to the ER for a flu shot!" He explained to her that he "didn't have time to go to Walgreens to get it." That got some judgement and eye rolling from me. I judge this. Not the person, but the situation. I feel you. This is one of the reasons I think our entire healthcare system needs a revamp. I see it a lot, and it is sad. Health care is a human right.
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mlana
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,523
Jun 27, 2014 19:58:15 GMT
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Post by mlana on Jan 13, 2019 17:05:19 GMT
I will top all of your stories. My son liked to swing daughter around by her hands. One day he hurt her. We thought her arm was broken. So we took her to the er. As far as they could tell he popped her elbow, nursemaid’s elbow, but they put a splint cast on her. She had to wear that for 2 weeks and then we could take it off. 2 weeks, she would not let us take it off! We had to take her to the er to have a DOCTOR take it off. I was able to get into her pediatrician, who pretended that we were at the er. Yes I am the mom who take her spoiled rotten child tithe doc, to have some gauze unwrapped! This happened with both of my kids. My DS was about 3 and liked to be swung between us. I was holding his hand one day and he dropped to his knees so I would swing him, but I couldn't since DH wasn't holding his other hand. DS stood up and was really, really quiet. He was silent all the way home, so I knew something was wrong. When I went to get him out of his car seat, he cried out in pain. I took him straight to the ER, thinking something had happened at daycare. He wouldn't let anyone touch his arm, so they did an X-ray and it was fine. The ER dr came in and was talking to us and offhandedly handed DS his stop watch. DS took it in his injured hand. We went home. My DD was 4 when it happened to her. Being a bit more dramatic than DS, she screamed bloody murder. I don't remember what she had done, but I was concerned enough I took her to the local Children's Hospital. I asked if she could play for a minute before we signed in and the receptionist grinned and said sure. As soon as DD got into playing, she forgot about the pain in her arm and used both hands. We went home without even signing in that time. A couple of years later, DD broke that arm right at the elbow. The surgeon told us that her joint was loose and asked if she had ever had any episodes where she had sharp pain in the joint. Yep! He said she probably wouldn't have any more problems with it due to the location of the surgery and he was right. My aunt's kids were on Medicaid when they were growing up. She rushed them to the hospital ER every time they sneezed. She didn't have to pay for their meds or a co-pay if they went to the ER, so she never even tried to take them to a primary. When she died and her youngest went to live with my mom, he was stunned to find out people went to non-ER drs and sometimes even went when they were well. Marcy
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melissa
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,912
Jun 25, 2014 20:45:00 GMT
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Post by melissa on Jan 13, 2019 22:15:50 GMT
This is one of the many things I’ve wondered about if we ever get free universal healthcare. Will people be screened before being allowed in the ER and if it’s not deemed an emergency, are they told to leave? Can you even imagine what that would be like with telling that mom her little snowflakes fever isn’t important and the scene she would cause? Because someone who even thinks like this and that this is OK will not take no for an answer. This would actually be wonderful! Many ERs actually have a Fast Track area or Urgent Care attached just for this reason. They can screen and send people to the appropriate area with the appropriate level of care. I think most people might be surprised to know that the MAJORITY of ED visits today are NOT EMERGENCIES! So many who have had something for days before coming in to the ED when a visit with a doctor or an urgent care would have been more than sufficient. And it's not even a majority of people that don't have access to care. There are so many people who just use it as a convenience. Gone are the days when people would actually call first. They go online and google or ask on FB and others say "go to the ED" when the answer really should be "call your doctor." When I last had an ED co-pay, it was $200. I believe I now pay a percentage of the visit. You'd better believe that keeps me from going to the ED!
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Post by sabrinae on Jan 13, 2019 22:42:10 GMT
I recently watched “999, What’s Your Emergency” on Amazon Prime. It centers around ambulance calls in Britain. I was surprised and disgusted by the reasons people called an ambulance. I assume they do not pay for ambulance services because they had people who had called the ambulance upwards of 100,times during a year! These poor professionals are being called because someone is drunk and they need a ride home! And the ambulance service has a “duty of care” responsibility to where once they are called to a location, they have to treat the person, no matter how stupid and minor their injury is. The hospital emergency rooms must be overwhelmed with drunks sleeping it off. What a waste of a hospital bed. The calls for the Blackpool area were predominantly all alcohol related. The statistics on the percentage of calls for an ambulance in all of the cities filmed were alcohol or drug related. It was astounding. And the cost on the health care system was insane too. If a group is out drinking and a member of their party gets drunk and throws up, they call an ambulance. They also get a number of calls for this “legal high” substance that people are taking. That stuff is scary. I really recommend watching a few of these episodes. It was quite eye opening for me. Oh, and the number of women who wait too long to go to the hospital to deliver a baby was surprising too! There were also a large number of cases of mental illness. There was one pregnant girl that disgusted me to the point that I wanted to jump through my screen and smack her. She was in a vehicle accident and the ambulance was called for her due to her advanced pregnancy. They were in the process of stealing a car when this girl’s boyfriend crashed it with her inside. As the ambulance staff were checking her over, they asked if it was her first pregnancy. She looked to be late teens to early 20s to me. She said it was her 6th pregnancy! They asked where the 5 children were and she said they were all “in care” which I guess is the term for social services taking the babies away from the mother. Hello, birth control! She was just popping out babies, not intending on keeping any of them and was partying along, not letting the pregnancies get in her way. I hope “in care” means they are put up for adoption as infants so they get a chance at a good life. Ambulance rides and and emergency room visits must be free there. No one was concerned about needing to pay for the usage. I didn’t hear insurance mention at all. The youth in these cities were just out of control. They also focused on police departments. I didn’t know British police don’t carry guns at all. These episodes were quite educational for me too. This isn’t limited to the UK. It happens in the US too for similar reasons.
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