what are the hospitals like where you live?

[anarch]

I just got back from the ER at Washington Hospital Center--not for me, for my girlfriend, who had some kind of fainting situation this morning and was taken there in an ambulance, and was evidently brought a couple feet inside the door and left there unattended for about seven hours. I was finally able to get there, thinking I would go sit with her and hold her hand and so on, and waited for about another hour, being told she was "next on the list" (after being told she was #2 on the list about four hours earlier), but eventually we came to the conclusion that there was no way she was seeing a doctor before midnight or so, and she decided she was feeling better, so we bailed out. Although we couldn't even get anyone to pull her IV out (it was put in by the paramedics in the ambulance) until she started to pull it out herself in frustration.

The woman next to her--right next to her, in fact, also just inside the door--had been there pretty much as long. Another guy who had been next to her, with a head injury, also got up and left after waiting about four hours. While I was there, some dialysis patient whose son had been told earlier, "Look, we'll get to him as soon as we can, we've got really sick people here! If you're breathing, you'll just have to wait," had to be rushed to the back because he was moments from death after being left in the waiting room for God only knows how long. I guess he finally stopped breathing?

As far as I know, there wasn't any particular major incident or outbreak or whatever today...just a Wednesday. I can't even imagine what would happen if there was some big emergency. The other hospital emergency departments in town were evidently "closed", as was WHC's at some point. What the hell does that even mean? Where do the ambulances go when all the hospitals are "closed"?

Oh well, at least we don't have free universal health care...then you might have to wait a long time to see a doctor or something. I've decided that next time I have a medical emergency, I will just die as peacefully as possible in my own home rather than go to the ER.

[ChoralScholar]

1. North Arkansas Regional Medical Center

looks like a modern, world-class, state of the art facility. You would think there would be great treatment there. You would be wrong. I had threaten walking out with my son before I could get anyone to take his temperature or give him any medicine.

The hospital is severely understaffed, and those that are staffed are underpaid.

[bigwillq]

2. The hospitals in CT

(for the most part) are very good as far as their staff is concerned and the treatment that you get. Yale-New Haven hospital is one of the best in the country.

As far as prompt service, not always so good. They get busy and you wait but the wait is usually worth it.

[Momgonepostal]

3. Funny you should ask that

We've been in two different local E/Rs in the past couple of weeks. They were both overcrowded and understaffed, and one was dirty.

The first was so busy, the wait to get a room wasn't bad, but then they just left us in there. My husband was in so much pain he was vomiting all over the place, and he begged for pain meds, but it still took 2 hours to get them. He threw up all over the sink and they said they'd send someone in to clean it, but they never did, so we had to smell vomit the rest of the evening. Oh, and they messed up his IV, and the fluids he was getting missed the vein and swelled up in his arm. And they needed to get two separte blood samples, because his first one apparently got left out and was unusable. Oh, and the button to page the nurse, was essentially something that just turned on the light outside our room door. The only way a nurse noticed it, was if she happened to be walking by. Every time we needed something, I had to go find someone.

The second E/R was so crowded, our "room" was a space in the hall. The staff was much more competant, but we still had to wait a very long time.

I've gotten the bill for the first, and just the preliminary bill for the second. Hopefully, we will be able to talk the second E/R down a little. Our total bill for the two is over $18K. And our insurance goes into effect November 1. :cry:

[RiffRandell]

4. Do you have health insurance?

Yeah, unfortunately it makes a difference. I had EXCELLENT care at Gwinnett Medical Center in GA----they were awesome when I had my kids. The nurses were fantastic. But there was a time I had no insurance in 1994 at Backus in CT and it was very good, too.

[wildhorses]

5. I hate seeing these horror stories on here...

I feel personally responsible for all them. Working in an ER and our situation is not much better. I wonder if all the hospitals suffer from the same peter principle that has attacked ours. Top heavy with a clique of overpaid incompetent management. They come in late, leave early, take long lunches and garner huge paychecks. Meanwhile, we are understaffed and underpaid and constantly told to do more with less:eyes:



there has GOT to be a better way:banghead:








I am so sorry for your bad experience:hug:

[anarch]

7. oh, I don't blame the ER staff

They were clearly doing the best they could. They were just totally overwhelmed, I think mostly because there aren't enough beds, so the admitted people get backed up in the ER, and thus the staff have like three times more people than they should have to deal with...well, that and the closure of DC General a couple of years ago, and no real replacement for it. I agree that there's got to be a better way...I wish I knew what that was, aside from my plan of just dying. It's really depressing.

[wildhorses]

8. not to depress you even more but.

that is my plan of action, too. Hell! I work in one why would I want to go die in one?

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. It was not the ER of our hosptial dear wildhorses (they are the best)

quick and efficient in their care...it was what went on upstairs that nearly cost me my life (i'm not exaggerating when I say that MrG saved my life) and sent me to the ICU. The care that is given in the ICU should be the standard on all floors... but nurses are already overworked and underpaid. :hug:

Here's what happened:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2396962

[wildhorses]

14. oh my goodness....what a scare. Thank goodness for MrG

attention everyone...if possible a family member or respnsible person who knows you should be with you!! This way when you act abnormally they can be your advocate and insist that you get the medical attention that you deserve. Demand it!!

and now your leg?

:hug:

[Nikia]

6. We'll see how they are in my new town, but they were prompt in my old one

Perhaps, we never arrived at the ER during a prime time, but we always received prompt treatment by both nurses and doctors, except when my husband had tonsilitis. They were shift changing and saw his case as low priority, but we were still in and out in about 2 hours. Not all the ER doctors there were very good and some nearly cost some people who I know their lives if they had not been peristent or showed up at their family doctor right away in the morning. This was small town Wisconsin.
In my bigger town in Ohio, we had to wait a long time for weekend non emergency treatment (I remeber going there a couple times that way a couple times as a child), but the time that I arrived in an ambulance in junior high and the time that my dad brought me in with a life threatening adverse medication reaction, I received immediately treatment by nurses and saw a doctor within 15 minutes.
In my new town, they also have urgent care in the evening and on weekends at the hospital so I hope that means the ER is prompt since there is an outlet for non emergency problems outside of normal doctor's office hours.

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. The local hospital is a small one

About 80 beds.

LifeFlight helicopters frequently take off from its helipad. The joke around town is, "Somebody must have been bleeding."

Its name is Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital. Local EMTs call it "Hazel Hackemup."

Many people simply refuse to go there, opting for a corporate-owned hospital about 20 miles to the north.

I dunno much about the ER as I've only been there a couple times, with my ex and her asthmatic son for breathing treatments. He was taken care of pretty well.

[u4ic]

11. I haven't been to one in a long time

but a couple of months ago, my father had a fall, and was taken in right away - within 4 hours he was released, already having had a battery of tests, including a CT scan and a visit/consultation from a neurosurgeon.

Also, about a year ago, my nephew had a workplace accident and had a couple of fingers severed or paritally severed...within a half hour he was in surgery, and they were able to save all but one.

So much for commie hospitals. :eyes:

(that's not to say there isn't problems in the system...just recent experiences of those I know)

[anarch]

13. see, there you go...goddamn commies!

[femmocrat]

12. My most recent experience with the emergency room was

similar to yours. I sat there for 6 hours with an icepack on a broken wrist. When I finally did get to see a doctor (?).... he put on a splint and told me to see an orthopedic dr. on Monday.... (this was on a Friday). So, I suffered all weekend and Monday with a broken wrist. I just pray I don't ever have to go to the emergency room again.

[Broken_Hero]

15. The

St. Joseph Hospital up in Joplin, MO is pretty good..My FIL broke his jaw this past January, and they had him into ER within seconds, and taken care of immediately...no wait, no dumb paperwork...just his insurance card, and whammo...he was sent to the back...

Sutter Health in Roseville, CA sucks...I didn't like it, I was there for 5 days, the room sucked, and I got no cable! Damn 5,000 a day for a room with no cable, wtf is up with that?

My hometown hospital is pretty good, but they make you wait forever too...

Kaiser in Sacramento is utter hell on earth...I will not go there unless there is no other option...

[Momgonepostal]

16. Our worst recent experience is with a Sutter affiliate...

And we're getting Kaiser next month. :-/ It's tough though, we have to get an insurance that's affordable and we have to then go to the hospitals they tell us to.