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?
By the way, as much as I dislike Obamacare, none of this has anything to do with Obamacare. Urgent care centers have been marginal for decades. (If you work in one, my apology; there are a few good ones. I’m sure yours is one.)
I went to urgent care when I broke my foot last year and they frayed right there and also made an appointment for Monday morning (it was saturday) for me to see the ortho dr was given crutches and told not to walk on it at all.
x rayed dern autocorrect.
Not O/T but maybe a little: Hand injuries can be very serious and not all the symptoms present immediately. Stick by getting that X-Ray, even now. If they don’t see anything and it still smarts in a month, get her to a hand specialist for an MRI.
Seriously.
Definitely word of mouth is the way to go.
We had an urgent care in our neighborhood. They took two X-rays of a friend of mine and said he had pneumonia. When treatment was not working, he went back, and a new person was there who looked at the X-rays and said no pneumonia. They are now closed.
That said, my local emergency room was not great when I dislocated my shoulder and had to call someone in from off-duty to put it back into place after repeated attempts.
I also remember a doctor who had never heard of swimmer’s ear, apparently, and kept poking around in my daughter’s ear looking for something until she finally broke down in tears.
It all depends on the doctor, is my conclusion. You takes yer chances.
There ya go, avoid the doc in a box. Either go to your own doctor or go to a real ER.
Don't ever go to a Centura hospital either. I had a blood clot in my leg and called ahead. Told them that I had a blood clot and that I would need a wheelchair by the time I got in and then described that my leg was white from my knee down and the pain was excruciating. They said "come on in" I got there and after the same thing, blood pressure, exam, etc. They said that they couldn't treat a blood clot there. They gave me 20mg of morphine that didn't help a bit, kicked a guy with a heart attack out of an ambulance and rushed me twenty miles back to where I started from and then twenty miles beyond that to another hospital. I almost lost my leg because of them.
sounds like you needed a vascular surgeon not just a "clot". two types of clots... 1. venous 2. arterial
What I see in your post was that they didn't communicate... or they did and the pain and the morphine shaded your memory. Either way, glad your leg is still with you.
'If it ain't bleedin, don't rub it.'
It was arterial and was opened up by a radiologist and later “fixed†sort of by a GENERAL surgeon, but that’s a whole nuther story. Again Centura. I had an awesome vascular surgeon do the other leg so I can really see the difference between a quack who ruined my leg and a skilled physician who had me in and out in no time with full use of my leg. The other- not so much. I hate Centura! The root cause was an aneurysm behind the knee in each leg.
You live in Central NJ, your wife works for JNJ, she has the nearly best private health insurance available in the state, you should have driven directly to any Summit Medical Group office and would have gotten immediate first world care.
You have JNJ insurance, why the hell would you not go to a proper Medical Group office?
http://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/locations/
Your wife has a log-in for her insurance plan, or she can call HR and get a new username/password, that provides a list of providers in the JNJ network of doctors. Try that if you want more options.
I use the CentraCare clinics provided by FL Hospital (Orlando area), and had no problem. Broke my arm last yr and they handled it well.
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