Quote:
Originally Posted by perrjojo
My husband went to the ED on Jan 2nd. He was seen in 45 minutes and had a room in the ED about 30 minutes later. In the meantime he had blood work, an EKG and X-ray. He then had a room in the hospital in 5 hours from the time he entered the emergency department. All of his care givers were concerned and competent. They also constantly updated us as to how long it might be until what was next. After being admitted he received excellent, friendly and competent care. This is his 4th time ther in 6 years. Three of the four experiences were good and one was not so good. You just never know when you go in who and how many are there with more life threatening conditions than you.
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My wife had about that same experience early last year---but ER experiences can be hit or miss depending upon volume.
That being said, I found the ER at TVRH to be the weakest link. I've read almost all the posts on this subject for the past 2 years and there is a wide variety of opinions. Some are just incredulous---like an 80+ woman with a broken hip waiting 22 hours for pain meds. Some are overly critical like the person who left after waiting 25 minutes. The truth is probably in the middle. I've run an ER that was much busier than TVRH and ran the QA committee that oversaw ER operations for years, and there is A LOT OF ROOM for improvement here. Each ER tends to have its own "culture", and that culture derives from the top. If the physician isn't constantly pushing staff to get patients into a room, get lab and x-ray done, and get the hospitalists to admit a patient, then the whole system gets bogged down and backed up (the same is true of a private office). Sometimes you have to identify those who aren't pulling their weight and have them undergo "alternative career opportunity enhancement" Administration needs to have a vigorous QA program that tracks waiting times and time to admission. Here's a simple example---we had a rule that a patient could not go to a floor until the admitting doctor wrote orders in the ER, so they could be waiting hours for them to show. We changed that to a policy that the ER doc would talk to the admitting doc and if he could not show up in 1/2 hour then the patient would be sent to their room, and the floor nurses would bug the doc for orders. ER flow and waiting time decreased dramatically. I think administration needs to have a "come to Jesus meeting" with the ER director and most of the problems could be easily solved.
ER medicine is stressful by its very nature, but a good ER physician can make a world of difference. I've seen the posts about going to Leesburg or Ocala, or even 2 1/2 hours to Jacksonville---from a medical point of view that is dangerous and reckless, unless you yourself are a medical professional that has already correctly diagnosed the patient's condition, and even then, you have no ability to start treatment in a car. In the case of a cerebrovascular accident or acute coronary syndrome that decision could be fatal. JUST CALL 911!!!! and let the pros do their job. For my wife and I, we have no qualms about going to TVRH again.