[Diva Kay]

I was sent straight from Lake Center Imaging to ER as I had a blood clot in my right leg - yes a life threatening blood clot.
Do you know they sat me in a wheelchair for 5 hours before ever seeing a doctor. The ER is for emergency situations and trust me a blood clot is an emergency.

Then the doctor admitted me - and guess what, I was sent somewhere in the dark ages of the hospital - a semi private room with a port-a-potty. And the woman in the other bed had bronchial pneumonia - very contagious!

So....if you are following this....I have a life threatening condition and my life is further threatened by bronchial pneumonia.
AND, where are these beautiful private rooms that millions of dollars were spent on?????

[Jima64]

that is scary. what were they thinking or were they too busy with other emergencies?

[Railcruiser]

Porta potty because you should be on bed rest. The rest inexcusable

[Diva Kay]

Bed pan because of bed rest. Port-a-potty was for mobile people like the chronic lady next to me. I was told there were 28 treatments rooms, all full, and only 2 doctors.

[linday]

My mom developed double pneumonia and was sent to er from premier medical and waited 9 hours before getting room and treatment. Mom got better thank God! But, have been advised in the future to only go to the villages hospital by ambulance or it may be your last hospital stay ever! Unacceptable!

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Diva Kay

I was sent straight from Lake Center Imaging to ER as I had a blood clot in my right leg - yes a life threatening blood clot.
Do you know they sat me in a wheelchair for 5 hours before ever seeing a doctor. The ER is for emergency situations and trust me a blood clot is an emergency.

Then the doctor admitted me - and guess what, I was sent somewhere in the dark ages of the hospital - a semi private room with a port-a-potty. And the woman in the other bed had bronchial pneumonia - very contagious!

So....if you are following this....I have a life threatening condition and my life is further threatened by bronchial pneumonia.
AND, where are these beautiful private rooms that millions of dollars were spent on?????

Sorry, but I have to throw my 2 cents in on this one. I don't doubt you perceived the situation as you described, but to give an independent opinion:

1) A venous thrombus in the leg is not life threatening, it only has that potential if a piece breaks off, travels downstream, and causes a pulmonary embolus. I have seen people walk around for weeks with a DVT and only come in to be seen because their leg was swollen.

2) I personally see no excuse for a 5 hour wait. It sounds like the ER physician already knew the story---I assume you were at the imaging center for a venous Doppler which was positive, and that's why they sent you to the ER. If I were the ER doc, I would want to shoot you up with lovenox ASAP, it would take about 3 minutes to introduce myself, poke on your leg and start treatment. Imagine how everyone would feel if at hour 4 you developed respiratory distress and pleuritic chest pain consistent with an embolus and no one had even seen you.
On the other hand, last October I was sent to the ER at Strong Memorial for emergency neurosurgery, which was done after 22 hours in the ER

3) If you had uncomplicated DVT with no co-morbidities, you didn't even need to be admitted. Just start lovenox in the ER, give you a prescription for Xarelto, and have your physician check you in 3 days, possibly repeating the venous Doppler

4) Bedrest???? I think the last time that was ordered for a DVT was 1956

5) Bacterial pneumonia is not VERY contagious. Most of the bacteria that cause it are already present in your own respiratory tract---it is only when conditions are right that it can take over and cause pneumonia (chronic lung disease, malnutrition, immunocompromised, diabetes, etc.). If it were highly contagious, hospitals would be required to place all pneumonia patients in isolation

6) There is a lot of trashing TVRH on TOTV, not saying that was what you were doing. But my wife was admitted there in March. Yes , she had a 6 hour ER wait, and yes, her condition WAS life threatening. She was there 16 days then across the street in rehab for another 26 days. Was this the best hospital in the world---no. Was it the worst--certainly not, I've seen some of the worst. Having had experience with about 3 dozen hospitals up north, I would put it the 40th percentile---which really is not too bad for what it is. We should be thankful for what we have, and in case everyone hasn't realized it yet, healthcare in the US is about to take a nosedive

[justjim]

"Healthcare in the United States is about to take a nosedive". What do you base this statement on? Shortage of doctors and nurses plus an aging population? Perhaps Obamacare? If this is factual, why aren't we doing something about it? Just wondering.....

[Bonnevie]

Originally Posted by justjim

"Healthcare in the United States is about to take a nosedive". What do you base this statement on? Shortage of doctors and nurses plus an aging population? Perhaps Obamacare? If this is factual, why aren't we doing something about it? Just wondering.....

my two cents---because it costs money! medicare keeps cutting reimbursements to doctors and hospitals. staffs are cut to save money. the smartest people don't see becoming a doctor as a good return on their considerable investment of time and money. everyone is doing more with less and yet patients are demanding more and better but don't want to make lifestyle changes for their health. just watch tv--don't modify your diet, take Nexium or a statin. costs are skyrocketing.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by justjim

"Healthcare in the United States is about to take a nosedive". What do you base this statement on? Shortage of doctors and nurses plus an aging population? Perhaps Obamacare? If this is factual, why aren't we doing something about it? Just wondering.....

It's just my opinion, but here is my basis:

1) there is a growing shortage of doctors, especially in primary care. If the Obamacare dream of covering everyone comes to fruition, that's 40+ million more patients in need of primary care with less doctors

2) When I first started medical school in 1978, there were 129,000 American applicants for 17,000 seats. Last I saw numbers about 6 years ago, there were 23,000 applicants for the same 17K seats. Due to a variety of economic and social changes, the talent pool is being diluted, and therefore the "average" physician probably starts out with lower qualifications than in the past.

3) Our residency programs cannot fill with American graduates, therefore the programs are getting filled with FMGs, 5th pathway graduates, and previous practitioners from abroad. Some are good, some are not.

4) Medicare is going bankrupt, some insurers are dropping out of the medicare market, and the cost keeps going up. Add to that the cost of 40+ million new "insurees" that for the most part are subsidized, the cost of advanced technology, the aging of the baby boomers, and the unfunded liabilities of Obamacare. This means either raising taxes to pay for all this, or the dreaded "R" word---rationing health care like they do in Europe. I'm not sure Americans will stand for either.

5) Probably nothing is being done because no one knows what to do, or no one can agree on it, or the issue is too politically charged for any elected official to want to take the lead on it

6) I'm not sure some, if not all of this has been scripted to cause a collapse of our healthcare system so as to carve a path for the Holy Grail of the left---socialized medicine, which is gaining popularity with younger voters anyway. I hope they eventually realized that "Medicare for All" really means VA style healthcare for all, with the attendant triple the cost bureaucracy and one third the efficiency of all government programs. The system would work much better as a benign dictatorship, as long as I am the dictator

[Bogie Shooter]

///

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Bonnevie

my two cents---because it costs money! medicare keeps cutting reimbursements to doctors and hospitals. staffs are cut to save money. the smartest people don't see becoming a doctor as a good return on their considerable investment of time and money. everyone is doing more with less and yet patients are demanding more and better but don't want to make lifestyle changes for their health. just watch tv--don't modify your diet, take Nexium or a statin. costs are skyrocketing.

You are basically correct. Medicare has been giving doctors a 1-2% fee increase for the last 8-10 years, but costs go up 4-5% per year. Hospitals are worse off because of complex regulations that actually take back some of the money that was paid to them. Since hospitals are labor intensive, that is where the cuts are made. Less of our brightest young people are attracted to medicine due to the years involved, the huge loans they need, and the constant threat of litigation, as well as a media that seems to continually portray doctors in a negative light----you hear about the huge malpractice award, or the license revocation, but not the tens of millions of beneficial encounters.
As far as patient compliance goes, Klatu (The Day the Earth Stood Still) put it best when he said "People do not change until they are on the precipice" The health conscious among us already eat right and exercise, but most of the rest won't change until they have a heart attack, or a diabetic complication

[NYGUY]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

It's just my opinion, but here is my basis:

1) there is a growing shortage of doctors, especially in primary care. If the Obamacare dream of covering everyone comes to fruition, that's 40+ million more patients in need of primary care with less doctors

2) When I first started medical school in 1978, there were 129,000 American applicants for 17,000 seats. Last I saw numbers about 6 years ago, there were 23,000 applicants for the same 17K seats. Due to a variety of economic and social changes, the talent pool is being diluted, and therefore the "average" physician probably starts out with lower qualifications than in the past.

3) Our residency programs cannot fill with American graduates, therefore the programs are getting filled with FMGs, 5th pathway graduates, and previous practitioners from abroad. Some are good, some are not.

4) Medicare is going bankrupt, some insurers are dropping out of the medicare market, and the cost keeps going up. Add to that the cost of 40+ million new "insurees" that for the most part are subsidized, the cost of advanced technology, the aging of the baby boomers, and the unfunded liabilities of Obamacare. This means either raising taxes to pay for all this, or the dreaded "R" word---rationing health care like they do in Europe. I'm not sure Americans will stand for either.

5) Probably nothing is being done because no one knows what to do, or no one can agree on it, or the issue is too politically charged for any elected official to want to take the lead on it

6) I'm not sure some, if not all of this has been scripted to cause a collapse of our healthcare system so as to carve a path for the Holy Grail of the left---socialized medicine, which is gaining popularity with younger voters anyway. I hope they eventually realized that "Medicare for All" really means VA style healthcare for all, with the attendant triple the cost bureaucracy and one third the efficiency of all government programs. The system would work much better as a benign dictatorship, as long as I am the dictator

Good analysis!!

[Diva Kay]

I do appreciate all comments; however, when your leg is swelled up so bad that it hurts to walk on it and your sandal has to be cut off - I was in no position to question anything the ER doctor told me.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Diva Kay

I do appreciate all comments; however, when your leg is swelled up so bad that it hurts to walk on it and your sandal has to be cut off - I was in no position to question anything the ER doctor told me.

Didn't mean to minimize your symptoms, I know it sucks and hurts a lot. Was just offering an opinion on the standard treatment for uncomplicated DVT and whether it is immediately life threatening. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[SoccerCoach]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Didn't mean to minimize your symptoms, I know it sucks and hurts a lot. Was just offering an opinion on the standard treatment for uncomplicated DVT and whether it is immediately life threatening. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Your replies here are spot on. We entered the ER Tuesday Morning at 3 a.m., in pain. Registered, saw the triage nurse in 40 minutes. Waited another short while until a bed was available. Moved to a bed, preliminaries performed, seen by the doctor who was there at 5:30, cat scan at 6. Given pain med, rested until cat scan results proved nothing serious, leaving us with just a painful discomfort which was now subsiding. Discharged with prescription at 8 a.m. All things considered, a somewhat uncomfortable but efficient and professional experience.