Taking care of business...

[grammynmaggie]

Spent the whole day in the ER with my dad...why oh why are
hospitals soooooooo slow! 7 hours...he broke is colar bone
dont know how...has a huge hematoma on it...size of small
orange...so they are going to keep him to keep an eye on it
So any way...thats my story for the day...

[bluepinecones]

Sorry about you dad. Hope he recovers quickly.

Know what you mean about hospitals. I've been staying with my niece at hospital for past 4 long days. She was released this afternoon.

[Acadianmom]

Hope they can help your dad. I get so aggravated at ER rooms too. Just went through one with my son. He was having muscle spasms in his back for 3 hours before they gave him a shot. We have a choice of 6 hospitals and that one is on the bottom of the list now. Don't know that one of the others would be better but they will get a chance if we have to go again.

Martha

[cpatinjones]

Hopefully, he will get the care he needs. I agree...ER waiting rooms take forever to get service, unless it is life or death.

[Liz]

Sorry you had a long stressful day. Caregiving is not an easy job. Hope your dad will be ok.

[Redwahine]

Glad your dad is OK.

[snowball]

sorry to hear about your father and Martha about your son
hope all is better tomorrow..waiting in er can be a stressful time
we were fortunate when dh went to emergency that they were busy and got right
in but I understand that rarely happens
sheila

[Carolinagal]

So sorry to hear about your Dad. I've spent days like that with a parent, as Liz says being a caregiver is not an easy job..but none of us would have it any different would we? Hoping he gets ok soon. In the meantime, relax and take a deep breathe while he is being cared for by someone else.

CArol

[grammynmaggie]

Thanks all for the get well wishes for my dad...
At this time its not to hard taking care of him
he does most things himself..just need to keep
eye on him..like yesterday...he was bound and
determinded that he was ok and not going to
the ER....well a friend came along and he
went...now just me telling him he needed
to go...would he listen? NO...lol
thanks agian donna

[Irmi]

I hope your Dad continues to heal. I've never understood why ER's are so slow, but they are. I know caregiving isn't easy and feel your pain.

[Travelinana]

Glad your dad is going to be OK..not trying to be political but ER's are used when many patients can't get in to see a DR...as you know unless you have insurance payment is required....I'm not sure this is going to be better, personally I think it will get worse.

[mitch5252]

I'm sorry about your Dad...
You are so right - why would he listen to YOU?
LOL - life is sure funny that way.
But at least he went and now you can nurse him back to health.
You're a good daughter.

Keep up the good work!

[Dawn309]

Glad to hear your Dad finally got help. I hate ER's. Have spent so many hours in them over the last few years. Since Chuck usually had to go by ambulance, he got faster service than if I drove him in. Unfortunately 5-7 hours was the normal.

[AlmostThere]

One explanation on ER wait times:

Answer: The reasons for emergency department waits are complicated; our entire health care system is implicated. It is impossible to explain every aspect here, but one place to begin thinking about the problem is to separate waiting to be evaluated from waiting to be admitted to the hospital, if an evaluation shows that to be necessary. The reasons for each differ, although there is some overlap.

You waited to be seen, so let's focus on that. Almost every emergency department in this country is overcrowded. About 50 million Americans lack health insurance and, for them, the emergency department may be the only way to get health care: Doctors there see all patients who arrive, regardless of their health insurance status. Meanwhile, the number of emergency departments is decreasing. In 1991 there were about 2,500 departments in urban and suburban areas. Now there are about 1,800. Some additional staffing can help, but there's a fundamental problem of too many patients being funneled into too few departments.

Lack of access to primary care is another factor contributing to the overcrowding. Tyhere are too few primary care physicians, and the ones who are practicing have full schedules that make it difficult to see emergency cases. Some primary care physicians are experimenting with open-access scheduling, so more of their patients can be seen on an emergency basis. Others hold evening hours, which may also help some.

And apart from the overcrowding issues, I think waits have gotten long because the nature of emergency medicine has changed. The main focus used to be on resuscitating people and treating major trauma. We still do that, of course, but now the emergency department has become, de facto, a diagnostic center as well. And the evaluation of patients has gotten incredibly complex. Blood and imaging and other kinds of tests have to be ordered. That can create backlogs and longer waits.

Finally, patients in the emergency department are triaged: Sicker or more seriously injured people get seen first. So someone let's say, with an ankle sprain, will often wait a long time because patients with, say, serious bleeding or chest pain that could be a life-threatening heart attack receive attention right away.

[JudyJB]

I also spent many hours and evenings in the ER in the last few years of my mother's life. Even when you are seen right away, one big reason for a long wait is the time it takes for tests to be run. For example, I remember when she had paralysis on one side of her body. They took her to a very small nearby hospital and it took 6 hours after she was seen to get the several blood works done and x-rays, etc. When they finally diagnosed a stroke, I insisted she be transfered to a nearby University hospital by ambulance for admission because I did not want her admitted to this tiny place that I did not like.

When we got there, they ran everything again, and by this time her paralysis was lessening and she had a lot more feeling in her leg and arm. Turned out she was having a heart attack, not a stroke, so after 7 more hours of tests, she was finally admitted. And all of this was after ambulance rides, which meant she was seen immediately each time.

I guess my point is that even after being seen, things take time.

I did once have a major temper tantrum in an ER for myself, when I was led to believe I would be able to see an opthamologist because I had had a bleed in my eye and knew it could have been an emergency. After waiting 6 hours, I finally figured out that they did not consider this a medical emergency, and I would not even by evaluated by a regular physicain until after all the bleeding and passing out patients had been seen--estimated time 10-12 hours or more. I was furious because they had led me to believe it was just a few more minutes for 6 hours. I stormed out VERY LOUDLY at midnight. Then called an Opthamologist early the next morning. He saw me immediately and as I was going in, the ER staff called me to make sure I saw someone soon!! You can imagine what I told them!! Luckily it was not a retinal detachment.