Tried to go to the hospital....ended not so good

lunasmom

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Ugh! That's terrible!

I remember having a roommate in college that was prone to migraines...very bad ones that would cause her to throw up, shake, etc, etc. I gladly drove her to the hospital each time and despite her being in intense pain, it would take 4-6 hours before she was seen by anyone (meaning we were in the waiting room that long). I was often confronting the staff about cause really all she needed was a shot of morphene (the same that she always got). By the end of the wait, it was only another hour before she left.

Hopefully the rest of the hospitals take this on: over the past year ERs are taking on the "A doctor will see you in 30 minutes or less...GUARANTEED".

Have you thought about googling your symptoms and seeing if there is a specialist? I understand you may have some difficulty being without insurance and needing a payment plan, however I just saw an episode of Mystery Diagnosis and some woman did that and found out her illness.
 
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Aw, I'm so sorry! I'm lucky enough to have an urgent care attached to a hospital here, so if I think I need to go to the ER I go there instead. It's cheaper and faster and nicer. I've been for two concussions and a migraine now and it's much better than the ER! Plus it takes some of the workload off the ER so the people who need it can go faster. Anyway, you should see if there is one around you.

An 8 hour wait is ridiculous, especially when you are so sick, I'm sure it felt like 8 days.


How are you feeling now?
 
crazyforinfo

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Next time double over in pain and tell your DH to tell them you need a wheelchair. I am sure they will see you fast then.
 
carolpetunia

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Originally Posted by Denice

...the only thing open to her seems to be an emergency room. Unfortunately that is the only care open to most people without insurance...
Click to expand...
And frequently not even that. Many hospitals won't even take a life-and-death emergency without insurance. I understand the principle of capitalism, but -- money is more important than life?

How does this country reconcile that with all our talk of human rights and compassion for our fellow man?
 
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mom of 4

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So I will play the Devil Advocate (hospital) here. I haven't worked in an Er for many years, but I have friends and family who do. Some of them are nurses and some physicians.

Too many people don't have regular doctors any more. Partly because their insurance changes annually and they are always having to look for a new doctor. So they don't have someone to call when they are ill, they just go to the ER.
Many people are afraid to take off of work to go to the doctor or to take a family member to the doctor because they think they will lose their job.
Many people underestimate the seriousness of the illness and delay treatment until the ER is the only option.
Many people don't have insurance or the money to go through a regular clinic, so the ER is all that is left.

In the ER, a triage system is used. This means that the critically ill get taken care of first, there is no first-come-first-served. The down side is that it is based on your presenting symptoms, not a firm diagnosis. There will always be critically ill patients waiting and not yet recognized as that ill. There are also the ear infections, sinus infections and other non-emergencies (though painful) there also.
There are certain times when the ER is usually not as busy - Monday through Thursday, around 3 AM comes to mind.

Be patient. I understand your frustration, pain and anger. But anger isn't going to get you anywhere. In fact, being nice will get you much further. Remember the people working in the ER have no control on who shows up or when - they just have to deal with it. Patients in the ER are usually cranky, feeling very ill and forgot their manners. Be that person who remembers to say thank you and give the worker a smile. Don't complain, just be unstanding. I promise you that it will get you a better experience. People will take the time to explain more, they will bump you up to receive tests or care faster when they can.
It works.
 
jcat

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Originally Posted by Mom of 4

So I will play the Devil Advocate (hospital) here. I haven't worked in an Er for many years, but I have friends and family who do. Some of them are nurses and some physicians.

Too many people don't have regular doctors any more. Partly because their insurance changes annually and they are always having to look for a new doctor. So they don't have someone to call when they are ill, they just go to the ER.
Many people are afraid to take off of work to go to the doctor or to take a family member to the doctor because they think they will lose their job.
Many people underestimate the seriousness of the illness and delay treatment until the ER is the only option.
Many people don't have insurance or the money to go through a regular clinic, so the ER is all that is left.

In the ER, a triage system is used. This means that the critically ill get taken care of first, there is no first-come-first-served. The down side is that it is based on your presenting symptoms, not a firm diagnosis. There will always be critically ill patients waiting and not yet recognized as that ill. There are also the ear infections, sinus infections and other non-emergencies (though painful) there also.
There are certain times when the ER is usually not as busy - Monday through Thursday, around 3 AM comes to mind.

Be patient. I understand your frustration, pain and anger. But anger isn't going to get you anywhere. In fact, being nice will get you much further. Remember the people working in the ER have no control on who shows up or when - they just have to deal with it. Patients in the ER are usually cranky, feeling very ill and forgot their manners. Be that person who remembers to say thank you and give the worker a smile. Don't complain, just be unstanding. I promise you that it will get you a better experience. People will take the time to explain more, they will bump you up to receive tests or care faster when they can.
It works.
Click to expand...
I've had to have emergency surgery twice, and find what you're saying about triage to be true.

It's really not the fault of the ER personnel when people are forced to wait for hours, but more of the lack of universal health insurance in the U.S..


Ping, I'm so sorry that this issue has been going on for so long, and you still haven't gotten a diagnosis or treatment. Hopefully you'll get some help in Savannah.
 
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ping

ping

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Originally Posted by Mom of 4

So I will play the Devil Advocate (hospital) here. I haven't worked in an Er for many years, but I have friends and family who do. Some of them are nurses and some physicians.

Too many people don't have regular doctors any more. Partly because their insurance changes annually and they are always having to look for a new doctor. So they don't have someone to call when they are ill, they just go to the ER.
Many people are afraid to take off of work to go to the doctor or to take a family member to the doctor because they think they will lose their job.
Many people underestimate the seriousness of the illness and delay treatment until the ER is the only option.
Many people don't have insurance or the money to go through a regular clinic, so the ER is all that is left.

In the ER, a triage system is used. This means that the critically ill get taken care of first, there is no first-come-first-served. The down side is that it is based on your presenting symptoms, not a firm diagnosis. There will always be critically ill patients waiting and not yet recognized as that ill. There are also the ear infections, sinus infections and other non-emergencies (though painful) there also.
There are certain times when the ER is usually not as busy - Monday through Thursday, around 3 AM comes to mind.

Be patient. I understand your frustration, pain and anger. But anger isn't going to get you anywhere. In fact, being nice will get you much further. Remember the people working in the ER have no control on who shows up or when - they just have to deal with it. Patients in the ER are usually cranky, feeling very ill and forgot their manners. Be that person who remembers to say thank you and give the worker a smile. Don't complain, just be unstanding. I promise you that it will get you a better experience. People will take the time to explain more, they will bump you up to receive tests or care faster when they can.
It works.
Click to expand...
I don't know if you have read my other posts but I have tried to see regular doctors but because I have no insurance and I am not rich no one will work with me. No payment plans nothing. They all tell me to go to the ER if I feel its bad and this is how all paients are treated at the ER here. And thats a wellknown fact here even though we just built a new hospital. But make me sit for 8 hours when I feel like I am gonna pass out I get testy. I tried being nice, I tried begging, I tried everything to just be told in a few minutes for 8 hours.

Can't go to the ER at 3am in the morning. I have 3 youngs kids, husband works nights and I have no family or friends here.

I understand its not a first come first served type place. But my hospital is just not good all the way around. There was a woman there in a wheel chair complaining of heart palpatations and she waited just as long as I did. My son had to go to this ER once when he jammed a plastic cat wand into the roof of his mouth. Mind you has had several past surgeries on the roof of his mouth. Still a 6 hour wait to see a doctor. A woman was there 12 weeks pregnant bleeding afraid she was having a miscarriage. Still she waited 6 hours to see a doctor. Because she was not 20 weeks they would not allow her to go to the OB section of the hospital they made her wait there for 6 hours. Our hospital is bad. I could go on and on with the horror stories of this hospital.

How am I feeling today. Still have a headache that I can not shake no medicine will touch it. I am still bleeding. But at least I don't feel shaky, lightheaded and my feel no longer feel like sweating ice cubes.
 
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Oh sweetheart, I wish there was something I could do to make it all better. I know how frustrating and scary it is to KNOW you're sick and to have the people who should be helping you do nothing useful at all.

I don't know how things work where you are, but I have heard that if you call an ambulance to take you to the hospital you tend to get seen faster. But I believe you'd have to pay for the ambulance which may not be an option...
 
duchess15

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Oh Ping...I'm sooo sorry you have to go through this. ER's are notorious for making people wait because they are overworked and understaffed. Some people have actually died in the ER because they didn't realize how serious the situation was and I'm talking about people who had had heart attacks.
I'm going through a situation that is not similar to yours, but just as frustrating. For the past 5-6 months I have been in physical pain on and off and have seen about 3-4 different doctors and they can't tell me what is wrong because they can't find anything. I'm not making up my symptoms! I never had it before and it just started one day and now I'm afraid it will never go away or what is even wrong with me. I just got referred to another doctor....
I hope you can find someone in Savannah to help you. The way they treated you is very unfortunate, but is becoming more common. I can't believe that even after 8 hours you had still not seen a doctor. That is just ridiculous and astounding. Then, they don't even spend the time on you like they should once you get in there.
I really, really, really, hope that you will finally receive the care you need. I also hope they can tell you what is wrong because I completely understand what it is like to get passed off from one doctor to another and not have a clue as to what is wrong or if it can be fixed. I do not want to suffer for the rest of my life!

Keep us posted.
 
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Next time, don't make the call to your husband. Make the call to the local TV station. You won't be surprised how quickly you will get assistance!!

I went to the local ER a few years back because of chest pains. Now mind you, I was a 45 yr old woman at the time, quite a number of pounds overweight. Prime for heart attack. But because I walked in, I was in the waiting room for 4 hours. Luckily for me, it was a very bad attack of indigestion.
 
starryeyedtiger

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I feel your pain! The last time i went to the hospital i had to wait longer than you did (and i have insurance
) . Our hospitals around here are slow as dirt depending on your problem. Luckily though while i was waiting to be seen by a doctor they at least got me on an IV drip and potassium/etc and the nurses were friendly. I was polite to them and i think it helped the situation- i noticed that when i was polite to my nurses- they were more likely to do little things to keep me more comfortable- getting me a warm blanket, trying to get me in a room asap, - it definitely helped.
I definitely appreciated that because i felt like i was in the worst pain ever. I am soo sorry you were treated badly at your hospital. There is no excuse for that.
The only reason i had to wait soo long at ours is because it was soo croweded- so i understood the doctors were just swamped. When I finally did get mine though- he was very kind/polite. (still doesn't excuse such a long wait - but it helped!)

Is there any way you could let a supervisor at your local hospital know in a polite way (maybe a written letter?) that you were not treated properly/etc? They definitely need that brought to their attention so it doesn't happen again
I would have been upset too love- i don't blame you!
Especially not when you were scared and in pain!

Is there any way to get your hubby to drive you to the other hospital as soon as he can? I hope you're able to get the care you need there and they have some answers to your medical problems
 
carolpetunia

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Originally Posted by jcat

...It's really not the fault of the ER personnel when people are forced to wait for hours, but more of the lack of universal health insurance in the U.S....
Click to expand...
I'm sure that's true. I think TV has conditioned us to expect everyone in the ER to be running around at top speed, barking orders and yelling "Stat!" all the time -- but in reality, people simply cannot work at warp speed throughout an entire shift. So when they don't appear to be hurrying, we patients feel they don't recognize the urgency of our situation, and we become resentful.

Also, an ER shift is likely to be 12 or 16 hours or more (another absurdity of our healthcare system), so we're dealing with staff who are being grossly overworked to begin with.

One thing that would help is waiting rooms that are less like torture. If there were softer lighting instead of glaring overhead fluorescents... if there were benches as well as chairs, so someone feeling really awful could lie down if necessary... little things like that would make it easier.

And every ER waiting room should have a prominent sign that reminds people of the principles of triage and explains why it's really not possible to predict how long their wait may be... and thanks them for their patience!
 
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