Have you been to a Hospital Emergency Room? What was your experience? (x-rays, pains)

[songinthewind7]

I accidently slit my thumb one time with some scissors and the cut was deep so I went to the ER and it was lined with tons of people, some of them didn't seem like anything was wrong with them.
The thing that made me angry was the fact that a P.A. couldn't make a decision on whether or not I needed stitches or the other option that I forgot the name for so he had to wait for a doctor to come in to look at it and tell him that I needed stitches. I never understood why he couldn't make a simple decision and of course I got charged more for that.

[AnonChick]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

If you really have an emergency call an ambulance. If you go to a local ER in CA you will be in line behind a huge amount of Illegal Aliens. The last 2 times I was in one with my kids the wait was 8 and 11 hours.

The system truly is broken.

If your kids were able to survive waiting 8 and 11 hours before being seen by a physician, then it wasn't an emergency. Just like all those other people in the emergency room who wait 8 and 11 hours.

Emergency = "if this isn't dealt with NOW - something bad will happen."

Emergency != "the doctor's office isn't open on Sundays and my stomach hurts."

Emergency isn't even "I might have a broken ankle." It's rare for anyone to die from a broken ankle. But people with gunshot wounds, head trauma of any kind, immediate back injury, panic attacks that can be mistaken for heart attacks - DO need to be seen immediately. And even sometimes the gunshot wound person will be given a tetanus shot and stuck on a gurney until a physician can get to him, if he's not bleeding too badly and maintains consciousness.

[christina0001]

I last went to the ER with some very unpleasant symptoms that I thought were kidney stones (Friday at 7pm of course). Turned out to be a UTI.
I only had about a 15-20 minute wait. I was in and out of the hospital in no more than 90 minutes. Very good experience overall. No one looked like an illegal alien, but then again, I live in what appears to be the whitest place in the world.
I found out a few weeks later that there was a new urgent care clinic I could have gone to, and I felt bad, would have been a cheaper option for my insurance company, and I would have had a lower co-pay.

[MaryleeII]

Maybe this has been said before, but unless its a true life threatening emergency one should try those urgent care clinics. They are actually quite good, most have x-ray, lab, some even have ultrasound, etc. They are much cheaper and quicker. I've used them for sinus infections, taken my kids there for a broken arm, twisted ankle, asthma attacks, they are quite good. Also, they can get you into a specialist faster, like when my ds broke his arm---we went to urgent care, they x-rayed and splint it, then gave us a referral to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, sent the x-rays over, we were seen by the specialist is 3 days, otherwise would have taken weeks.

The only time I used an ER was when I was gushing abdominal blood, told dh to call 911, I was dying. Well, when you go in by ambulance, they take you more seriously. Turned out I had transverse colitis, blood coming out both ends, I sure made a mess of that ambulance!

[ParallelJJCat]

I've been with my mom to the hospital many times and it's always been a nightmare. Long, long wait times even when she thought she was having a heart attack, doctors not paying attention when I told them she has problems tolerating certain medications, etc.

Many years ago I went to the emergency room for severe pain in my gut. It turned out I had a ruptured cyst on my ovary. I don't remember too much, but I know I waited a long time to be seen. The pain made me feel like I had to keep rushing to the bathroom, and a nurse kept yelling at me for getting out of bed when I really couldn't help it.

Last year I went to the emergency room again for severe pain in my stomach and gut. I was having a bad reaction to a new drug my doctor prescribed. Totally different experience- the staff were very kind and I was seen quickly. They took the time to explain things and my nurse was super sweet- she got me a warmed blanket when I was cold and kept checking in on me. This was the same hospital as above, but they've been trying to change their image (they were known as the worst hospital in our area) and I have to say it really worked.

[Pierce2011]

My son is active and accident prone, so we've been to the ER too many damn times. Once for pneumonia and 7 more times for major injuries including broken bones.

The two main hospitals he's been in, both had separate ER's just for kids. So he's never had to wait more than a few minutes to be seen for his injuries.

I've been in the ER once and since mine was life threatening, I was seen immediately. Same thing with my parents. They were seen immediately as well. I am very thankful that we have excellent hospitals in my area. They've all been life savers literally.

[jtur88]

First of all, the reason it is called an emergency room is that, from time to time, they handle an actual emergency, and there is a triage desk that sorts them out. So if you actually ARE an emergency, you will be seen quickly. If you are an illegal alien, you probably will not be. In either case, you have no legitimate complaint.

I do have one concern about my recent visits to an ER, both of which were on a weekend, when I could not wait to see my GP. In both instances, the triage nurse ordered diagnostic tests BEFORE I was seen by a doctor. In one case, the CT-scan was completely uncalled for under the actual circumstances, and in the other case, the ultrasound was a repetition of one that was performed a couple of years earlier for the same complaint. In that instance, when I did see the doctor, he looked at the ultrasound results, but did not examine ME, he just prescribed an antibiotic and gave me a referral slip to a specialist.

In other words, there are things going on in ER procedures that I do not understand, but seem to me to be wasteful and inconsistent with good health care delivery.

Furthermore, before I left, I was handed enough forms and agreements and disclaimers, printed on one side only, that I won't have to buy any printer paper for a year, and I got writers cramp signing them all, with two full-time "health care" employees on duty 24/7 to handle it (and maybe only one doctor). How much of our $4.3-trillion health care cost is spent on meaningless paperwork, explaining the privacy act to me over and over again?

[D217]

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

Maybe this has been said before, but unless its a true life threatening emergency one should try those urgent care clinics.They are actually quite good, most have x-ray, lab, some even have ultrasound, etc. They are much cheaper and quicker.

This is great advice.

I was in pretty bad shape, but did not know how bad, and went to one of these. There was no wait, the nurses and doctors were very nice and attentive, and they did a thorough check-up & diagnosis, and from there I rode in an ambulance to the real hospital ER for surgery!

yay...

[MaryleeII]

I found if you go by ambulance to the ER you are taken more seriously and seen quicker. Not suggesting you call an ambulance to cut in line, but if you truly are having a life-threatening emergency, it speeds things up. Also, you are transported in a safe manner, as opposed to either driving yourself or a distraught family member trying to find the hospital in the middle of the night!

[Ohiogirl81]

The urgent care clinics are great, if you can find one. They don't seem to be too popular around here.

With my previous insurance (United HealthCare), the co-pay was less than half of the ER co-pay; with my current insurance (Independence Blue Cross), there is no difference. Which is stupid.