Posted on 02/14/2013 4:42:57 PM PST by ropin71
Central NJ- My significant other bashed her hand this morning, it swelled bad and lots of pain. Went to work and it got worse, so went to the urgent care facility for an x-ray. She works for J&J and has very good insurance. When she arrived, she asked if they were able to x-ray on site, and was told yes. After filling out many pages of forms and handing over a $20 co-pay, she was taken to a room where a 'nurse' incorrectly attempted to take her blood pressure several times, tried taking her pulse with her thumb instead of first two fingers, and then was told the Dr. would be in shortly. Her chart was in the room for the Dr. to review.
Older Dr. comes in and attempts to shake the hand that is injured. When he was told this was the hand she injured, he just stood looking at her awkwardly. Dr. never looked at the chart, and when she held out her swollen hand to show him, he began squeezing it, enough to make her cry, and said, I don't think its broken. When she said she would like an x-ray, and that she has been on Coumadin for some time, as she noted in her chart, he asked her if she would like some Extra strength Motrin for the pain. Of course she can't take Motrin due to blood issues, and reminded him, and he seemed confused, asking questions, instead of even looking at the chart
Next, he hands her an ace bandage, and says, here, in case you need it, and begins writing a prescription for an x-ray. When my gf asks him why he is writing a script for something can be done there, he replied, "you have private insurance, we can only x-ray here for people who don't have private insurance, or the indigent". Says she will have to go down the road to the imaging center for the x-ray, and he will have to call her with the results as soon as a radiologist could read it.
She arrives at the imaging center, and is asked by the gum chewing, 3 inch nailed receptionist (in a room full of non English speaking patients waiting)if she is in network or out of network. When she replies that she has a prescription, what difference does it make? she is told if you have private insurance, it will be $100 cash or check only for the x-ray. Of course she doesn't carry $100 cash with her, and pays most bills electronically, and the receptionist was kind enough to point her in the direction of the nearest bank.
She left, quite shocked, and never did get the x-ray. I'm a little disturbed by this myself. Can somebody tell me (other than the obvious) what the heck happened?
“Dont go to urgent care for anything serious, just dont.
Ive only gone a few times and every time they misdiagnosed and mis-treated.”
I don’t think that’s universally true. I go to one and they are VERY good. They don’t take medicaid patients, and only take medicare if you have supplemental insurance.
Imho, the problem may be that you went to an “urgent care facility”. In my experience, it’s best to locate a hospital in your area that has a history of excellent medical care.
Have you tried our fast food?
We have turned into a third world country in respect to healthcare. And this has been happening for a long time.
What to do?
In your shoes I would get myself aligned with a comprehensive healthcare group in an upper middle class communtiy nearby. No more getting healtcare where the government supported go. No more doc ina box.
Do not exepect diagnostics and know that watchful waiting is the word. No xray until there is an obvious issue besides pain and swelling, very poor medical care and self advocacy needed.
Never ever admit to a hosptial without 24 hour family, or friend or hired private care. It is now third world and you will want to write down all medicine and check what is given. I am serious. Soon private small hosptials will be popping up. Go there.
I split my scalp once (think 5-7 stiches' worth). My dad just grabbed two tufts of hair on either side and tied them together. Feeling the skin pulling across my skull was weird.
I supposed there are some good ones. I think they just get so used to handing out allergy meds and antibiotics that they don’t know much else.
The hospitals are hit and miss as well, 3 hour wait minimum. She just wanted to get an x-ray and get back to work. I remember you used to be able to do that pretty easily...
Now that’s funny right there, I don’t care who you are :)
What is an “urgent care center”?
We go to the doctor’s office, or the ER.
i’ve gone to urgent care 3 times for stiches in my thumb or finger tip from cutting while cooking. my frar fell and put 6 stitches in the back of her head. no problems at any visit.
But do as you wish.
Well, if she’s in network, it’s mostly likely that she would pa a $100 co-pay, which is usually waived if she is admitted into the hospital itself. We would cover 80% and the patient responsibility would go to the patient’s out of pocket expenses.
Out of network and there is no co-pay but it would go towards her deductible. After she met that, we would cover a percentage of the allowed amount.
That would be why they were asking about in or out of network, didn’t mean she ouldn’t be treated, only how much it would cost.
Yes. We take time to decide on whether to go to Urgent Care or the ER.
I got a 2nd degree burn last month on my leg- ER.
Dog bite 6 months ago- Urgent care.
I hope you take your wife to another place to be looked at. That sounds painful.
dang, lol
This will be considered Cadillac Health Care in a couple of years. That’s not all bad though. You can’t be abused by incompetent quacks if you can’t get an appointment to see one.
We’ve been lucky here as well. Two nursing schools right in town (community college and university and this is a smaller town), a dental hygienist’s school and the Universities of Oregon and Washington medical schools supplying interns and PNWU just up the road. Quite a few foreign doctors also (I have one now), but no problems to report. I don’t generally hear complaints about the urgent care clinics here, but still am not looking forward to Obamacare, in fact I dread it.
Look on the bright side, at least Doctor Mengele didn’t sign off on a mandatory DNR order on her.
I’m a veteran of 20 years working in a large hospital’s ER.Those “urgent care” centers might....*might*...be OK for an earache or rash in an otherwise healthy person.For anything else,call your primary care doctor or,if that’s not possible,go to an ER.The larger the hospital the better.
Should have gone right to St. Peters in New Brunswick.
Two quick stories. Today my 81 year old father went for his chemo treatment. He will need an additional pet scan in April to make sure he is in remission. Doc says pet scan is 6k and doesn’t think insurance will cover it. My dad asks why. Doc says there is no ROI for insurance company. Then says, “my liberal patients aren’t enjoying this.”
So my son comes home from hockey camp last summer. His leg is swollen. While there he developed staph and they put him on anti biotics. From the airport I take him to doc in the box. Doc says yep, staph and gives him stronger antibiotics and tells him to continue on the ones he got in Canada. No big deal.
Couple of days later, he is getting ready for practice and I look at his leg. I just about puke. Take him to hospital. Next night they operated. Doc said one more day and he would have lost the leg.
3 weeks later results from doc in the box comes in.
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