[Bonnevie]

interesting if you go to Leesburg Regional Med. web page they say the ER wait time is 39min. My neighbor who was sent for emergency admission due to severe dehydration has been waiting since 11am in the ER. not on a gurney receiving IVs, but sitting in the waiting room with nothing. I understand they are waiting for a bed, and they are very busy with many acute cases, but this person has a serious underlying condition, has not been able to eat or drink any appreciable amount in weeks, but because her vitals "are stable" they deem a 76 year old woman ok to sit all day. This is not even "the season" and the two closest hospitals here can not manage their work loads. This is very concerning. When I called to ask why she hadn't received any fluids, I was first told she had been "taken back" and was on IVs. That wasn't true. when I called again, I got a very overworked but not not very compassionate male nurse who told me basically "tough luck". As a hospital pharmacist, this is why I had to retire, I could never be that cold about someone suffering no matter how many patients may have been worse.

[Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by Bonnevie

interesting if you go to Leesburg Regional Med. web page they say the ER wait time is 39min. My neighbor who was sent for emergency admission due to severe dehydration has been waiting since 11am in the ER. not on a gurney receiving IVs, but sitting in the waiting room with nothing. I understand they are waiting for a bed, and they are very busy with many acute cases, but this person has a serious underlying condition, has not been able to eat or drink any appreciable amount in weeks, but because her vitals "are stable" they deem a 76 year old woman ok to sit all day. This is not even "the season" and the two closest hospitals here can not manage their work loads. This is very concerning. When I called to ask why she hadn't received any fluids, I was first told she had been "taken back" and was on IVs. That wasn't true. when I called again, I got a very overworked but not not very compassionate male nurse who told me basically "tough luck". As a hospital pharmacist, this is why I had to retire, I could never be that cold about someone suffering no matter how many patients may have been worse.

To be fair, if they weren't answering calls from friends, they would be able to deal with patients faster.

[Bonnevie]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

To be fair, if they weren't answering calls from friends, they would be able to deal with patients faster.

maybe so, but I had to wonder why no friend or family interceded for the patients who died in the assisted living during and after the hurricane from heat and dehydration. They visited the place, saw the conditions, but did nothing. They assumed the patients were being taken care of. Then they lamented the dying of their friend or family member. I have worked in a hospital for 28 years. I have seen what kind of mistakes are made, how things get overlooked, fall the cracks. I have seen the deterioration of my friend over the past weeks and know how sick she's been...the staff is just taking numbers, they don't know how seriously ill she is. if something bad had happened to my friend, and I had done nothing thinking they were doing their jobs, I could not live with myself. and I shouldn't have been lied to initially.

[bigwdaddy]

I recently was in The Villages Regional Hospital for 11 days. It took me 8 hours to be admitted, but once in a room they were absolutely great.

[Bonnevie]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

To be fair, if they weren't answering calls from friends, they would be able to deal with patients faster.

oh and guess what. the nurse who I spoke with told me her vitals have been take every 2 hours since she's been there and she's stable. my other neighbor (a retired nurse) who's with her just told me that has not been done, they were only taken when she first got there almost 8 hours ago. so if they claim to have it, they are fudging records.

[kansasr]

You do realize that Leesburg and The Villages hospitals are the same company...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

[pauld315]

I have not had the "pleasure" yet of dealing with the health care available here but from what I have read it is not the same as many of the bigger cities we came from. Some ave told me that if you have a serious condition, just bypass everything local and go to Orlando, Jacksonville or Tampa. Pretty disconcerting for a community of over 100,000 seniors.

[Topspinmo]

only on my last breath, otherwise I will go to Ocala. especially after they kicked some of us out for the under the table money. But, I don't think it makes up for the 16K plus paying customer's they lost. They're lost.

[Blessed2BNTV]

Originally Posted by Bonnevie

interesting if you go to Leesburg Regional Med. web page they say the ER wait time is 39min. My neighbor who was sent for emergency admission due to severe dehydration has been waiting since 11am in the ER. not on a gurney receiving IVs, but sitting in the waiting room with nothing. I understand they are waiting for a bed, and they are very busy with many acute cases, but this person has a serious underlying condition, has not been able to eat or drink any appreciable amount in weeks, but because her vitals "are stable" they deem a 76 year old woman ok to sit all day. This is not even "the season" and the two closest hospitals here can not manage their work loads. This is very concerning. When I called to ask why she hadn't received any fluids, I was first told she had been "taken back" and was on IVs. That wasn't true. when I called again, I got a very overworked but not not very compassionate male nurse who told me basically "tough luck". As a hospital pharmacist, this is why I had to retire, I could never be that cold about someone suffering no matter how many patients may have been worse.

I wish you were my neighbor. Thank you for caring about another human being.

[JoMar]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

only on my last breath, otherwise I will go to Ocala. especially after they kicked some of us out for the under the table money. But, I don't think it makes up for the 16K plus paying customer's they lost. They're lost.

I think you are confused....you are talking about The Villages Health System, they were talking about the Villages and Lessburg Hospitals.

[Bonnevie]

another amazing thing was the ER did not go on divert despite having more acute cases than they were able to handle. my neighbors described a waiting room from a war zone with severely sick patients being wheeled in and reclined and left for hours. they were sure there were going to be deaths last night. my neighbor was finally told after being there 8 hours that it would be at least 9 more hours and they "might" have a bed. they would not call her doctor for instructions. she came home because it was more injurious to her health to stay there. she had a bad night and is of course calling her doctor this morning to find a hospital with a bed. yet at the height of all this, their web site said wait time for their ER was 39 minutes. they should have been diverting patients yet they kept accepting them.

[rubicon]

I posted this on another thread.

Median time in ER spent where patients were discharged and admitted.

Median time in ER before being discharged

National median time 138 minutes

Top State
North Dakota 99 minutes
Bottom state
Maryland 215 minutes
new Jersey & Florida tied with 154 minutes

Median time in ER before being admitted

National median time 279 minutes

Top state

South Dakota 178 minutes

Bottom state
Washington DC 485 minutes
Florida not in either the top ten nor bottom ten in this category

FIGURES ARE FOR TH 12 MONTHS ENDING SEPTEMBER 2016
SOURCE: CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES.

Apparently ER's are a problem nationally

Personal Best Regards:

[Bonnevie]

it is a problem everywhere. when I was in college my summer job was as a ward clerk in a hospital. we always got patients out before noon so new patients could be admitted in the afternoon. but now with such restrictions on length of stay, lab work may not come back until late in the day and insurance won't pay for the patient to stay beyond when they are deemed ready to leave. so patients are in beds waiting to be discharged at all hours and people are backed up in the ER rooms and staffing is short....it's all true. but if you are the patient suffering, it's little consolation to know that's it happening all over.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by pauld315

I have not had the "pleasure" yet of dealing with the health care available here but from what I have read it is not the same as many of the bigger cities we came from. Some ave told me that if you have a serious condition, just bypass everything local and go to Orlando, Jacksonville or Tampa. Pretty disconcerting for a community of over 100,000 seniors.

Experts?? Or just hearsay?

[autumnspring]

Cause there are many.

Personal experience on Long Island. I severely cut my knee.
We're talking blood pouring out. I closed it up best I could with adhesive tape. Since, the bleeding did not stop after half an hour or so. I called my sister, who showed up with her new car to take me to the hospital. I put an air mattress under my knee and off we went. By the time we got to the hospital, there was enough blood on the air mattress that I spilled it out.

The emergency room was filled with people coughing etc.

Top priority, fill out the paperwork, insurance coverage etc.
I sort of enjoyed leaving a trail of blood on the floor. I sat in the waiting room creating a six to eight inch puddle of blood on the floor. They bumped some guy with a heart attack in front of the line and that made sense.

There was a crowd of people waiting. A young kid comes in with his father and a sweatshirt over his front. Loud enough for all to hear-seems he got his ding a ling caught in his zipper. I HAD HAD ENOUGH.

I shouted out to hell with his ...........I've been sitting here for almost an hour bleeding on your .........floor. At last they took me in. Truth, they took me into a room just to shut me up. So there I sat bleeding on the bed. I saw some guy emptying trash. Somebody told that guy to remove my bandages. YUP, THE GUY WAS JUST EMPTYING TRASH CANS. I told him you better not do that. So he takes off the bandages and blood is now pouring out.
At last they found a doctor. Nice guy. He laughed and said there was no way in hell bandages were going to close that. About twelve stitches later it finally mostly stopped bleeding. I was a bit amused that before I filled out the paperwork with blood leaking all over the floor-I walked in.
On the way out they insisted I leave in a wheelchair-I think they said it was INSURANCE REGULATIONS.