[Russ_Boston]

Originally Posted by LillyD

I would think they would have drawn blood to check white blood cells - but they didn't.

I assume you say that because you felt you had an infection? If they took your vitals on arrival you must not have had a raging fever or some action WOULD have been taken.

What is your prognosis going forward? How are you going to handle the bowel obstruction?

[johnsgt]

as a healthcare professional -- I will say to avoid the villages hospital at all costs -- they are completely overwhelmed and this is to the shame of the developer -- the hospital has clientele which are older and in need of this type of care and I believe that there are very few "charity" cases which take up space in the ER here -- thus there is not an unusual drain on resources and reimbursement to the hospital is much better than other parts of the country -- it is really simple -- the developer did not anticipate the need adequately -- go the the urgent care centers unless you are taken in by ambulance -- in that case -- ask to be taken to Leesburg Regional -- The villages hospital is understaffed and undersized -- and they failed to diagnose properly what was happening to my cousin when he went there -- he waited 7 hours, was sent home with pain medication, only to return 5 hours later in acute renal failure (which they completely missed -- despite the history of renal insufficiency) and died 2 hours after re-admission -- needless to say a lawsuit will be filed --- really to show that they cannot continue to operate in this manner.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by johnsgt

as a healthcare professional -- I will say to avoid the villages hospital at all costs -- they are completely overwhelmed and this is to the shame of the developer -- the hospital has clientele which are older and in need of this type of care and I believe that there are very few "charity" cases which take up space in the ER here -- thus there is not an unusual drain on resources and reimbursement to the hospital is much better than other parts of the country -- it is really simple -- the developer did not anticipate the need adequately -- go the the urgent care centers unless you are taken in by ambulance -- in that case -- ask to be taken to Leesburg Regional -- The villages hospital is understaffed and undersized -- and they failed to diagnose properly what was happening to my cousin when he went there -- he waited 7 hours, was sent home with pain medication, only to return 5 hours later in acute renal failure (which they completely missed -- despite the history of renal insufficiency) and died 2 hours after re-admission -- needless to say a lawsuit will be filed --- really to show that they cannot continue to operate in this manner.

I see you are new to the forum. I do want to point out to you that the developer built the building and rents the space but the hospital is run by the Health Alliance which also runs the Leesburg Hospital.
http://www.cfhalliance.org/

[pbeecher]

I am new to the forum (as a poster) as well. I have followed items of interest for the last four years, however. This subject will obviously remain a
matter of opinion based on personal experiance. I've had just one with our ER a year ago when I assisted a neighbor with a bladder problem. I would consider that experiance middle-of-the-road; six hours.
I try to follow my wife's advice to "just drink the Kool-Aid". The developer no
longer "owns" the Daily Sun either. Is it coincidence that we have what I consider a shameless puff piece on page D4 of the 4/17 edition? I don't consider it so in light of the majority opinion in the 14 pages of this thread.

[Russ_Boston]

One more post on the subject:

I would say that the overwhelming majority of patients in the ER are not actual emergencies. My professional guess would be in the neighborhood of 70%.

Another issue would be the number of cases that get admitted to the non critical floors (like mine) is way too high. The problem with that is I have at least 2 patients a day, out of my usual 6, that just want to go home. And they just got there a few hours ago after waiting in the ER for a bed to open upstairs. They complain all day about wanting me to get the doctor for them so they can be released. When I tell them that the doc "will be here at some point in the day after they are done with their critical patients" they complain about the medical system.

We also have a very high number of dumps. Families who are just tired of taking care of their family members. They know the medicare rules by heart and will 'dump' their loved one in ER knowing that in 3 days Medicare will pay for another stint in rehab. They dump the patient at ER and then never come see them in the hospital. Most of these patients are not medically needy enough to take up the room on the medical floor but we can't just call a taxi for them and send them home so they occupy a room that could otherwise be used to free up the ER holds. Sad but very, very true.

OK enough ranting - off to golf

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by blueash

I suspect if they did a chest Xray on you, they would find that you actually have a heart, a good heart

Thank you for your kind words. My parents raised me with the edict that we do not live in isolation and that I have responsibility for others less fortunate than I—and that some of those “others” will be there when I am on the less fortunate end. I have been in both positions—where I serve others, and where I have needed others to serve me—and I have consistently found myself grateful for my parents’ values, in both receiving AND in giving.

When I first posted about my positive experience at the ER, I should have explained that I was there for an accident, not an illness. It was very clear what the ER staff and I were dealing with, it was a quiet morning, bleeding on the floor of the waiting room didn’t help (or maybe it did?...), it took them FIVE HOURS to put me back together (part of which time was discharge planning in that they would not release me until a referral to an appropriate surgeon within 24 hours was in place), and only after that time did someone from the business office come to me looking for insurance information.

But the story hadn’t finished. I wrote a letter commending the three staff members: a PA, who single-mindedly focused on his task of putting me back together, as though no one existed in the world but him and me; a CNA, a young kid who had the uncanny knack of focusing on what the PA needed from him while at the same time focusing on me and what I was dealing with; and a Radiology Tech who came three times with her portable x-ray machine to provide the PA with visual progress and who did so like an angel with THE most incredible gentleness, compassion, and reassurance. (Sadly, too many people don’t take the time to compliment when it’s appropriate; complaints are another story….)

In a few days I received a delighted and at the same time puzzled phone call from the hospital administrator, thanking me for recognizing these staff members—and then adding that NO ONE on the staff of the hospital matched my description (which my spouse agreed with) of the Radiology Tech, nor did my case notes give any identification of the “angel” who had done the x-rays that had allowed the PA to do his work and ultimately see that he had completed it. The administrator may have been puzzled; I was not. All I knew is that those values that my parents had raised me with had been right there with me!

[OnTrack]

Originally Posted by Quixote

So what are those “thirty million more” doing for health care under the present system? Are the somewhat sick simply getting sicker, and the very sick just dying without access to care? This is America? What is wrong with this picture?

BINGO!!!!

It's pretty pathetic when we start wishing other people didn't have access to basic medical care........just so we can move up in the line.

Too bad there isn't a pill that can instill tolerance and compassion. Of course, some would refuse to take it.




As to the ER here, I've heard of so many horror stories (on here and from neighbors)....that I will do everything possible to avoid it.

On the other hand, my wife's visit to the ER at Waterman last year....wasn't exactly confidence inspiring either.

.

[OnTrack]

Originally Posted by blueash

Hopefully this will not be deleted as political, but you completely misunderstand the workings of the ACA. The ER's are in part overcrowded because people DON'T have insurance. ER's are required to provide evaluation without regard to the financial coverage of the patient. So the uninsured use the ER for primary care and minor illnesses. We still hear people say we don't need universal health insurance as poor people can get great free care in the ER, so everyone really already gets needed medical care. Once people have insurance, they will be able to go to primary care doctors and NP/PA's and not overcrowd the ER, and in fact get their care at much lower cost per incident. The ACA will hugely improve the ability of ER's to return to their mission of providing emergency care.

Great post, in trying to get facts....to trump emotions.

.

[OnTrack]

Originally Posted by Golfingnut

YEA, we should just let those 30 Million people die on the street and let us more fortunate ones have better faster care.

That certainly seems to be the attitude of some.

.

[JourneyOfLife]

Originally Posted by blueash

Hopefully this will not be deleted as political, but you completely misunderstand the workings of the ACA. The ER's are in part overcrowded because people DON'T have insurance. ER's are required to provide evaluation without regard to the financial coverage of the patient. So the uninsured use the ER for primary care and minor illnesses. We still hear people say we don't need universal health insurance as poor people can get great free care in the ER, so everyone really already gets needed medical care. Once people have insurance, they will be able to go to primary care doctors and NP/PA's and not overcrowd the ER, and in fact get their care at much lower cost per incident. The ACA will hugely improve the ability of ER's to return to their mission of providing emergency care.

The same situation might occur in terms of overall inpatient hospital beds. People that are not proactive about their health may end up with more serious problems and have a higher chance of become an inpatient for something that they might have addressed with acute or chronic disease management with visits to the doctor's office.

ACA could have the effect of more beds available to the overall population because funding is available for uninsured people and they are more proactive in getting treatment.

I have heard that some private for profit hospitals might refuse to treat uninsured patients, other than perhaps to stabilize them in an immediate life threatening situation. Further more, I have heard that they usually send the uninsured on to a public or non-profit profit hospital that will treat them.

If that is true, then those unused beds in certain facilities that do not accept the uninsured, those might be opened up for use to those people, in effect reducing capacity strain on average.

I tend to expect that capacity strain may be more likely at some doctors' offices. Some areas may be worse than others. Apparently Texas has a very large uninsured population... no surprise there. They have been exploiting certain difference between states to try to attract certain businesses. But that is another topic!

We need to keep in mind, the uninsured only represent 10% of the population. That is a large number, but not an unworkable number!

I am sure there will be some snags along the way, but I am confident that it will all get sorted out and work. But it might take a few years and we may experience a few bumps in the road along the way.

[rp001]

Wow, I can't believe the fluff piece on the editorial section of today's paper praising this er...The description doesn't, in any way, reflect what I witnessed on my two trips there. I saw a lot more than "sick" individuals waiting treatment in the er, And some were in excruciating pain, one was an elderly lady abandoned in a wheel chair for several hours, one a diagnosed stroke patient waiting to be seen,(his wife was a nurse there and she pulled him out of the er and took him to Leesburg), A young man with a dislocated shoulder left in a wheelchair. It's very sad and to me, still is obviously, extremely poor management and the pr folks are already trying to put a spin on it. How sad. At least they know folks are speaking up on this forum.

[jblum315]

Leesburg Medical Center is only 10 minutes away

[Nipper]

Originally Posted by blueash

Hopefully this will not be deleted as political, but you completely misunderstand the workings of the ACA. The ER's are in part overcrowded because people DON'T have insurance. ER's are required to provide evaluation without regard to the financial coverage of the patient. So the uninsured use the ER for primary care and minor illnesses. We still hear people say we don't need universal health insurance as poor people can get great free care in the ER, so everyone really already gets needed medical care. Once people have insurance, they will be able to go to primary care doctors and NP/PA's and not overcrowd the ER, and in fact get their care at much lower cost per incident. The ACA will hugely improve the ability of ER's to return to their mission of providing emergency care.

Thank you for your intelligent, rational post.

[Russ_Boston]

Originally Posted by jblum315

Leesburg Medical Center is only 10 minutes away

Same company - same management - same nurses - same doctors. For the most part. I work both.

[gerryann]

Originally Posted by Russ_Boston

Same company - same management - same nurses - same doctors. For the most part. I work both.

So, why the difference? Doesn't it then have to be the volume of patients that TV has? So, going to Leesburg must be a smart move???