yeah, it's cheaper to drive yourself and get a speeding ticket actually

how sad is that! and if youve been a while without getting a ticket you can get off with driving school...that is, after you have been discharged from the hospital lol

yeah, i would have to go to back to driving school after my legs healed or maybe use the crutch to reach the clutch

I think that bill in Kevin's state is reasonable. It sounds similar to good Samaritan laws...I think if you don't have health insurance/any other way to pay, and you're treated by a doctor, you shouldn't be able to sue for simple negligence. Reckless or gross negligence could be a different story, but otherwise it is placing an extremely high burden on medical professionals without any benefit being conferred upon them.

Of course, maybe exculpatory agreements can eliminate the burden, and maybe they do (I don't have any familiarity with how uninsured patients are treated).

ooohhh...now i can almost agree with the states not allowing claims for smaller incidents. gross negligence should be covered no matter what the patients insurance situation is, because if an uninsured person is improperly treated, so will an insured person. i love one of the hospitals in VA, they dont ask anything at all about insurance until you are on your way out the door, which means they have to treat everyone as if they do have it.

Deep breaths...
 

Firstly, none of the GC Physicians are here because they are working in these kinds of places and they cannot defend there actions.

Secondly, I see animals all the time and have to gauge their pain responses before I have to do something to stop experiements. Because pain and distress is an OLAW violation.

Emergency rooms are hectic, and many people including healthcare staff are distressed. One snapshot is not going to give folks the constant turn around they need to see the entire display for weeks to years serving in the Wards. Most resident physicians stay on emergency duty for 2-3 years before they get boarded in the field.

That chit you see on ER... Bullisht.

The primary goal of the ER is to stabilize the patient. Period. That is their directive. That is how hospitals "evaluate" their practice. I cannot stress this enough:

FULL RESOLUTION TO HEAL OF A SERIOUS CHRONIC MEDICAL PROBLEM BY EMERGENCY ROOM CARE DOES NOT WORK!

This told to me by the Chief of Internal Medicine at a major hospital in my area... People cannot think the emergency medicine can be used in replacement for seeing their primary care health provider. Yes, go to emergency if your are bleeding. Yes, go to emergency in you have a 200 F temperature. Yes, go to emergency if you are hacking up purple stuff. But routine medical visits just to see doctors... YOu will not get seen properly... The emergency physician does not detect those things...

You have to follow up. Apparently, it sounds like this woman did not do that and she lost her life. But if there are 4-5 independent reviews and 20 times it shows that this woman skipped her appointments, then what are we suppose to say?

Say if this woman could have benefitted from a MRI, would she have waited until the dayum magnet would have heated up? That takes 6-12 hours to heat up the magnet. And if it is a charity hospital--GUESS WHAT!!! There is no 1.8 Tesla Magnet!!! That's off site! Missed appointment again...

This is what I do with my Health Forums. Educate the clients on what is possible when you visit your physicians. Showing that when your PHCP tells you something, they are not joking or wasting your time. They are SERIOUS. People do not know HOW to go to the doctor anymore. It's beyond "Open your mouth and say ahh and take 2 of these and call me in the morning..."

AKA_Monet:

When did she have time for follow up when she was released "hours earlier"?

Since, I have not heard or seen her record. I am gathering that based on the differentials of her symptoms, the chronic pain she had must have been intermittent. The hospital may have given her references to offices that would see her on a sliding scale, however, it is the patients right to not go and accept those names given.

Okey, the real deal, do you think the hospital had this patient's "record" readily available to see the course of treatment without causing HIPPA violations?

If she is not part of a huge healthcare system, namely HMO's with a number, then the hospital would probably not have her record during an emergency.

If she was uninsured, how will the hospital know who she is except that lady that is bitching over there.

Emergency care stabilizes the patient. The follow-up is done after the visit. It is a matter of timing. If she came in at midnight, she would be stabilized, then seen at 7 AM by a regular physician. If she came at 9 AM, she would be seen by a regular physician maybe by 2-4 PM, no later than 6 PM. If she needed further tests like CT or MRI, she could would wait 24 hours. If she had a obviously broken bone, she would have had X-ray at emergency and then the pictures would be relayed within 30 minutes to 1 hour to a radiologist.

Path report:
If she had a gross tear in her lower abdomenal on her saggital section at least 5 cm on the decending colon, specifically at point A.1. and temperature at 98.7 F (40 C); fully loaded unmasticated fecal matter consistency of jaundiced bowel...

That is the kind of stuff written in your record. That is why I am telling everyone that it is not a joke when your doctor is telling you something... That is how detailed we get.

This is almost exactly what I was told by one of my law school classmates (previously an ER doctor in a major teaching hospital). At some point, the patient has to take responsibility for at least part of their medical situation.

i have a cousin who insists she take her 2 year old to the emergency room everytime he breaks a 100 degree fever. she is also so lazy, she doesnt have any insurance on the boy (when she could easily get medicaid for him). yes, people like that tie up the emergency room. 99% of that stuff is a virus, and they will tell you to let it run its course. i believe in better safe than sorry, but when i am in line behind 14 kids with a non-treatable virus and my leg is hanging by a thread, i need those 14 kids to be at home in bed! (i feel justified in saying that since i have a child and she goes to the emergency room ONLY if she is severely sick and it is 3am.)

yes, aka_monet, lets educate people on what qualifies as an emergency.

24 hours for an MRI or CT? I know in this area you get in as soon as you can with either of those, and it's definitely not as long as 24 hours. Well, MRI depends on if it's in the hospital or mobile MRI. Even so, at least in this area, there are plenty of radiology clinics opening up. If it's a STAT case, they will get in and they're images will be read right away, so long as mobile MRI is there. That's how I remember it when I worked at one. I don't remember if we got any emergency room patients, but I just assumed that in the ER they'll get in faster if it's life threatening.

Thank you only if They do?:(

They do not!:mad:

Try it some time and say oh, I do not have insurance!:(

When I fainted at my job in Dallas, they gave me a CT scan. That's because I worked for UT Southwestern and my professor was Assistant Chief of Cardiology. So yes, one can get these things within minutes but it is all about who you know and who you are to get them.

But a 1.8 Tesla Magnet take time to heat up...

It is not about what qualifies as an emergency, because people wait too long before something can be done to have full resolution.

It is about knowing your body and if something is "out of whack" that makes the decision to go to an emergency room or not.

That's only for adults.

For children, I would probably go every time if my child broke a 100 F temperature. But, I would also how my kid operates when they have problems. I would see how they "pay attention" to things, I would see how they eat and drink. I would make every observation I can to ensure the best health for my child. Some people think it is cool to smoke around children... Then wonder why children get sick. Some people think it is cool to not feed their children or to feel them inappropriate stuff. Then wonder why the children are starving, unruly or morbidly obese at 7 years old.

And I'm guessing that you might take your kid to his or her regular doctor during the day when you realized that he or she was sick rather than waiting until the fever was that high.

This is one of those areas of reform that we do need to address. The whole it'd be cheaper and better for health if people saw doctors before it was an emergency situation, but you're only entitled to care you can't pay for if it's an emergency.