Posted by AuntieMel on August 10, 2006, at 9:02:57
In reply to Re: Yikes! I agree with Estella, posted by kylenn on August 8, 2006, at 21:27:29
Well, then, where you live is better than the part of the US I live in.
My mom was an ER nurse for years and years and she *did* see lots of people come in for sore throate and all.
And they were generally people on medicaid.
But, see, where we are medicaid will pick up the bill for an ER visit, but many doctors don't take it for regular clinic practice. And there are no clinics for those who can't pay. So, actually the ER is the only place they have to go.
So, they wait until the doctor's offices are closed, because if it is regular office hours the ER will turn them away. But if the offices are closed, they can't.
It's a huge burden to the hospital staff, the taxpayer, and the people themselves who have to go this route.
I live in a much larger city in the same state and we don't have any clinics either - at least on this end of town. So the situation is the same.
And that's not counting (touchy subject for many) the undocumented aliens - those who can't get medicaid - who are the working poor. They, too, have no where else to go and human kindness (not to mention the local law) tells us to not turn out sick kids.
----------------------"You are right about the ERs being used as clinics. but as a person who has worked in ERs MANY times as a student, resident, and
now as an attending, I have to point out that the ones who truly abuse the ERs generally (sorry, I have to generalize because I am
aware that there are exceptions but public welfare systems run on statistics and statistics are, by definition, a way to find out,
GENERALLY, what things are or how things are used, etc)
but generally, the biggest abusers of the ER for things like an earache for 3 days brought to the ER at 10p.m on Thursday night ARE
folks that are taken care of by the system, and they DO have clinics they can go to during the day and they GENERALLY get better
care, wait less, and have better follow up, if they go to their clinics.
But, they don't they go to the ER. At 10pm or 1a.m or 4a.m with their 6 year old who has had a sore throat for 5 days. I kid you not. Now,
what was that kid doing on Monday, Tuesday? Wednesday, all day Thursday? I have EVEN seen them come in like that and actually
say THAT THE KID IS FEELING BETTER TO DAY BUT THEY THOUGHT THEY SHOULD JUST GET IT CHECKED OUT!!!
Guess what, I agree, but why the ER? why in the middle of the night?
poster:AuntieMel
thread:674781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060809/msgs/675369.html