Anyone who has taken a loved one to the Emergency Room

[Raven]

with a real emergency and has held their hand while they waited for hours on a gurney in a hallway for treatment knows that the Emergency Room is not the place for routine medical treatment and should not be used as a substitute for routine care. I am willing to bet that the Romneys have never had the experience that I and millions of others have had. I suspect that when and if the Romneys have had an emergency, they have been met at the hospital by their private physician and immediately ushered into a private room.

[robinlynne]

1. In addition each emergency room visit costs the public thousands of dollars. most people who go to e

emergency rooms do not need emergency care. They (we) need clinics. That is why we have to wait so long. lack of medical care.

[arcane1]

6. And the victim gets harassed by debt collectors for the bill

and probably gets marks on their credit records as well.

[K Gardner]

9. Oh.. after 30 days, if you're not making regular payments, hospitals send the

bills off to professionals. Then the harassment and wage garnishment starts. And credit scores go into the toilet. And there goes any chance someone might have had of buying a house, or even getting a cell phone!

Because there was no insurance.

[elias7]

18. Our hospital doesn't do that. Are you sure that's what happens?

I've worked in several ER's- mass, WI, Ohio, new Hampshire....none of them were aggressive in bill collection. Don't know about the hospitalized patients.

I know you're an ED nurse from another post. Does this happen in your ED?

[LiberalFighter]

19. It happens here in Indiana. Not to me but those that I know.

[elias7]

22. They'll send a few bills, but stop short of collection agencies, foreclosure, etc.

I think I've been told that it is not financially feasible to crack down in a strong-armed way. I think it is unconscionable as it takes months for uninsured patients to jump through the financial grant/financial aid hoops just to get a primary doc.

I always had health insurance as part of a package with my job. Once I became an independent contractor, I had to purchase my own insurance. What an eye opener! Over $20k/yr. I wonder how anyone could afford insurance. Sinful, that's what I say.

[hedgehog]

2. Not to mention - it is a mantra repeated time and again that one reason American

spends so much on health care is that the emergency room is used as a clinic - and that people put off getting treatment for minor problems until they are an emergency!

Hmmmm.... spend $10 a month to put someone on a generic anti-hypertensive or treat a massive heart attack?

[K Gardner]

3. Amen. They have never EVER sat in an overcrowded, disgusting ER with people vomiting and

bleeding all around them, surrounded by the homeless and working poor and "those other 47% they don't care about".

[Raven]

5. Amen to you! You said it better than I could. I

remember bringing my mother to St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, Ma one evening when she was in terrible pain and waiting for about 3 hours to be seen. There were people sitting on the floor, babies screaming, blood and vomit everywhere. I thought I was in a Third World country. These very dedicated medical professionals get completely overwhelmed.

[LiberalFighter]

20. Should bring the people that show up at emergency to fill up the homes of the Romneys

[MichaelSoE]

4. Could you imagine walking into an E.R. and saying

"Hi. I'm here because I think I need Viagra."
Routine care? Hah! What a moran he is.

[enough]

7. Not to mention that massive bill that will arrive later.

To quote a DUer who is an ER nurse:

snip>

Do you think ER care is free? Have you ever seen an ER bill? Do you know how many people have filed bankruptcy over an ER bill and/or uninsured hospital stay? How out-of-touch with reality are you, really?

snip>

From K Garnder's eloquent post here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251105582

[PuppyBismark]

8. I went to an ER about 8 months ago and they committed mal practice on me

I had a problem that was painful. I was taken into the triage area and during the testing I had to go to the bathroom. When I returned, the nurse said to go out a wait until called. The problem got worse as I waited and more people were called for treatment. After complaining 5 times, they took me in. The doctor examined me and said, well it's not an infection since you do not have a fever, so we'll have to do a procedure. At that point, I told the doctor nobody took my temperature, but he said, yes they did and it was 98.5. At that point I told the doctor that I am more than intelligent to know when someone takes my temperature and insisted that someone take it now. It seems the first nurse in the triage area just did not do her job and reported a number just to get me out of there.

My temperature was 102.9 and thus the diagnosis changed to infection, with a powerful antibiotic, the problem was treated.

Before I left, I had a long talk with the doctor, the nurse administrator, and the ER supervisor. They all agreed that a significant medical error had occurred and that the triage nurse failed. A few days later, I spoke with the hospital QA department and subsequently learned the nurse got a week off without pay.

BTW: I have insurance and the visit was paid in full by it.

I understand there are lots of error made in ER's and thus just going there is a risk.

And this is where RMoney wants us to go if we don't have insurance.

[tavalon]

23. Nothing like blaming it on the nurse

instead of the system. It's a nightmare to work in an ER - overwhelming really. Mistakes in that kind of environment are inevitable. Blaming them on the nurse, also inevitable. No need to fix the system, we can just spank the nurse.

There are times when I wonder why I'm still in the biz after 23 years of this sort of upper management hanging us out to dry, crapola.

[begin_within]

10. I took my Mom to an ER for what turned out to be a kidney stone

she waited on a gurney in the hallway, just like you describe, for hours in extreme pain, while they told us they were waiting for a bed. Would not give my Mom anything to relieve the pain until a doctor saw her. So we waited for hours while she suffered. We saw a steady stream other people check out of the ER and walk away seemingly in top health. Don't know what they were there for, but it couldn't have been very debilitating. She finally got a bed and they did a cat scan and it was a kidney stone, and a doctor prescribed morphine and then she fell asleep. I'll never forget those hours she lay there in extreme pain, but I don't know really who is to blame for it.

[Raven]

11. I am sure that there is plenty of blame to go around but

advocating a health care system that keeps millions uninsured and make the Emergency Room their primary care provider is certainly a disaster.

[K Gardner]

15. Most Level 1 and 2 ERs have treatment modalities in place and approved by

MDs in which the RN is able to follow the set criteria/guideline and administer treatment/medication, etc., prior to an MD seeing the patient. These protocols are designed for instances such as this. Had your hospital had them in place, she could have been at least treated for pain and had initial lab work/IVs, etc going while waiting to be seen. In many ERs, the patient is already treated/diagnosed prior to the doctor even seeing them. Of course, that is providing the RN doesn't have 6 other patients, two of whom are dying of myocardial infarctions or sepsis.

You get the picture. The picture is this: The ER is NO PLACE for routine patient care, period. I am so very, very sorry to hear what your mother had to go through. No excuse for that, except our failing medical system and overburdened hospitals.

[begin_within]

16. Thank you.

It was at a Kaiser hospital and it was not the only thing that Kaiser did that I don't like. But it was about 7 years ago and my Mom (who turned 94 today) doesn't even remember it. Oddly, she's not with Kaiser any more but I am, even though I swore I would never join Kaiser I did because they had the only plan I can afford. And I have to say they have cleaned up their act, while I have not used the ER myself, everyone I have dealt with at Kaiser has been excellent. So I have no complaints about my own treatment by them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I suspect Romneys have an on-call doc who comes to them when called.

Concierge docs are the big things now days..if you have money.
You buy them like insurance,: pay an annual amount, up front, the doc in turn promises to come to your home,
evaluate you, hold your hand all the way to the hospital if needed, make sure you get immediate treatment.
As part of that up front fee, the doc promises to have a small select number of patients, so they can be instantly available.

We are gonna see much more of that in future, no doubt.

[begin_within]

17. Yes, you can get all kinds of services if you're willing to pay...

even private firefighting insurance is popular in the rich neighborhoods here in San Diego County. You pay a regular fee and they will come and fight a fire, even if it's part of a widespread wildfire such as the ones we had around here in 2003 and 2007.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. Amen!!

[MysticLynx]

14. Pre-Exsiting Conditions

I have had an auto-immune disorder since I was a teen-ager. I have not had ins for over 20 years. I can not get my medical records with the diagnosis that I got when I still had insurance, without my medical records with a previous diagnosis, E.R doctors just right me off as there is no documented 'proof' of my condition, but the ins companies can sure enough find my records and diagnosis. As a consquence of this untreated auto-immune condtion I have had several strokes. I went to the E.R, and as is common for those who do not have insurance did not recieve treatment, I was told I was having an anxiety attack and sent home. Not the first time I was dismissed from the E.R with a false diagnosis, that eventually caused more damage because I did not recieve the proper treatment in the first place. I now have lesions in my brain, have partially lost my eyesight, my memory, and have mobility issues, I would have never known about the lesions, except for a free walk in clinic where fortuantely the doctor not only listened to but believed my past history of an auto immune dis-order, recognised something was not quite right with my gait etc and ordered scans. What little job I did have I was let go from after the second stroke, though I was at the time being seen by a renal specialist and had a note from him for 'limitied' work detail and some minor changes to my work station so I could continue to work.. I was let go on a 'medical, which in a right to work state like I live in is pefectly legal, no recourse for me there. No emergency rooms for those without insurance- are not the place to get treatment EVEN for conditions that should be treated in an emergency room such as heart attacks, kidney failure and strokes. As I listen to Ann Romeny talk about her struggles with M.S ( an auto-immune disorder simliar to mine) I know she has never experienced what many of us suffers have which is that we suffer for years, being ignored by insurance companies and doctors, sometimes we suffer for decades even until death without ever recieving care and medications that would make our lives more managable. Welcome to Romeny World- don't get sick- and don't ask for help when your right to work company dismisses you when you do get sick. Please excuse the spelling and typos, as the spell check causes my browser to crash.

[Kteachums]

21. I took my young daughter to the emergency room during an asthma attack.

It was a day in December when there were few doctors on duty. They stuck us in a room and she could barely breath. I honestly thought I was going to loose her. Finally, my sister walked out and raised cain with the nurses and they gave us attention and immediately gave her treatment. It was a nightmare for me to watch my child gasp for air and no one would help her.
This is the truth. I'm sure the Romney's would be on a priority list no matter when they walked in. No one understands what it is like. I have insurance (good insurance) and that didn't matter.

I wouldn't vote for Mitt if he were the only candidate!