too many use the emergency room for the doctor’s office
You are absolutely right about that! I have worked ER’s in several states, and in every one, we were bogged down with non-emergency patients who we had to see regardless..........Fear of litigation ran deep.
In many areas there is no none emergency medical care available on weekends and after 5 PM. If the government
wants to deal with something deal with this obvious flaw!
To fix it, the hospitals need to set up triage nurses at the door. Do not let these people register or make it to the waiting room. If the problem is determined to be non-emergent, call their MD and make an appointment for them for when the MD can see them and send them on the way. Before they get in the hospital to even sit down.
Our hospital will receive 32 million dollars less this year due to Medicaid cuts. We will still have to provide the care, but we just won't get paid. These Medicaid/medicare cuts in no way stop these people from receiving care. It stops hospitals and doctors from getting paid for care they provide as stipulated by the law and medical ethics.
It’s not their money. What do they care?
Bigger TV, nicer chairs, vending machines right down the hall, someone to pick up after the kids when they toss their trash on the floor. I recently saw a family of gypsys that had pretty much overtaken every waiting room on the entire floor. They were there for days while one of their elders was being treated.
They had a tableful of grocerybags, and a big crockpot set up in one of the waiting rooms. My family had to go to another floor of the hospital to find a quiet place to rest.
too many use the emergency room for the doctor’s office
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Yep.
True, but OTOH, some primary care doctors will refer patients to the ER without evening seeing them first. That happened to me when I had severe pain and numbness in my left arm and I had insurance BTW.
I was confident that it was some sort of muscular problem and I wasn’t having chest pains, shortness of breath or other coronary symptoms and thought it was something else, probably tendinitis. After being up all night in severe pain and I mean severe pain, I still waited until my doctor’s office opened to call and make an appointment only to be told to call 9-11 or have someone drive me to the ER. I vehemently argued that I didn’t need to go to the ER; that I wasn’t having a heart attack but my primary care doctor insisted that I should go to the ER. That and that I couldn't be seen for a regular appointment for at least another week and while I didn't think it was a life threatening emergency, I couldn’t see myself being in that much pain for another week or more, especially since OTC pain relievers and heat and ice packs weren’t doing anything for me. (And I actually went to work that morning only to be told by my boss to go to the doctor's or the ER or go home as they didn’t want to be responsible if it was something more serious).
I fully understand that non-emergency visits to emergency rooms, people using the ER for primary care visits especially those on Medicare and Medicaid or without any insurance, put a huge strain on the system and greatly drive up health care costs. I don’t disagree that this is a big problem and something needs to be done about it.
OTOH, I think that sometimes it is hard for a person to objectively self diagnose whether the chest or severe abdominal pain or shortness of breath they are feeling is an emergency or not or a pregnant woman with bleeding isn’t in need of immediate care. Fortunately my self-diagnosed tendinitis was just that, but what if I was wrong and I was having a heart attack and didn’t go to the ER? As it was my insurance company didn’t want to pay the ER claim until I provided proof that my primary care doc had actually referred me to the ER. It took months and many phone calls and letters to get it straightened out and not being made to pay out of pocket for the ER visit as a non pre-approved "emergency".