Emerg. Nurses Opinion about this please

[TechieNurse]

I posted this under 'Nursing News', but I was interested in hearing some opinions about this article.

Obviously, we don't know all the facts of these incidents and can only comment on what we're told.

I've read on this board before that a two hour wait is very good.

What do you think about the woman calling 911 from the ER to take her to another ER? My thought was that she'd have to pay for that herself, I can't see insurance covering that cost...

Women: Poor Hospital ER Care Left Them At Risk

Patient's Appendix Burst While Waiting For Treatment, Mom Says

POSTED: 6:29 a.m. EDT June 4, 2004

UPDATED: 6:50 a.m. EDT June 4, 2004

WEYMOUTH, Mass. -- Two women are going public Friday with complaints about the emergency room care at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where one mother said her daughter's appendix burst while she waited six hours to be treated.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that both patients tell the same story of waiting to see a doctor. Virginia C. said her daughter had been diagnosed as having acute appendicitis, but still waited in the ER.

"My daughter having her appendix break like that ... and the doctor said she was a mess when he opened her up," said Virginia C.

Virginia C. said her daughter's life was at risk.

"She sat for six hours. She got up, someone came in with a sandwich. She got deathly ill, she threw up. I went to the nurse, I said, 'She has to be seen.' The lady coulda cared. And they got that new facility there. I think it's about time they look at it and do something differently," said Virginia C.

Braintree, Mass., hairdresser Christine H., 39, said she waited two hours in April at the same emergency room while experiencing a severe asthma attack.

"The triage nurse, when I said to her, 'I need to see a doctor,' she said, 'You and everybody else needs to see a doctor,'"

Christine H. ended up calling 911 for an ambulance that took her to Quincy Medical Center where she was promptly given intravenous drugs to treat the ashthma. She spent two days there recovering, she said.

South Shore Hospital has responded to Christine H.'s charges by saying, "Christine H. was not at medical risk during her emergency department visit ... despite her allegations, she was promptly given treatments," said Dr. John B., the hospital's director of emergency medicine.

Christine H. said twice nurses gave her the same inhalant treatments that she had taken at home which did not help her breathe. She said she plans to file a complaint against the hospital with the state.

2004 by TheBostonChannel.com

[SWFlorida]

I tend to take news reports with a grain of salt. They do tend to oversensationalize a lot of things, it sells papers.

I dont see where they got the triage nurses side of the story. Im not saying that the hospital is always right, or that the pt is always right. Just look at all of the sides before jumping to a conclusion.

I'm afraid as more and more people seek out the ER's as their primary care source you will see more and more stories like these.

[ang75]

Always two sides to a story. And all of us know that to the er pts 20 minutes seems like 2 hrs.

About the asthma...if the episode was so "severe" she wouldn't have lasted 2 hrs.

[TechieNurse]

About the asthma...if the episode was so "severe" she wouldn't have lasted 2 hrs.

Good Point Ang75!

Here's a snippet from the local paper yesterday:

"John B., South Shore Hospital's director of emergency medicine, wrote Friday that the hospital remains committed to patient care. He also said through a spokeswoman that Ms. C's case "did not meet our expectations of how care should be delivered," according to a newspaper report."

[Medic946RN]

With the news everything's a crisis! It part of that "Watchdog of the Common Man" attitude they learn in Journalism school. You know the same place where they learn to ask the cop's widow how she feels now that her husband's murderer has been acquitted, or the poor guy who just lost his home in a (Check all that apply) flood, fire, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, or riot. I've seen them write up and do sgements about car accidents I've responded too and scratch my head wondering if I was at the same scene. To paraphrase Glenn Close in the movie "The Paper": "We only have to be right for the moment."

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

Good Point Ang75!

Here's a snippet from the local paper yesterday:

"John B., South Shore Hospital's director of emergency medicine, wrote Friday that the hospital remains committed to patient care. He also said through a spokeswoman that Ms. C's case "did not meet our expectations of how care should be delivered," according to a newspaper report."

If the asthma was that severe could she even have talked on the cellphone

No Ambulance is going to pick you up in an ER waiting room and take you elsewhere. And certainly not without administrative approval.

[veetach]

well, it sounds to me like this lady will probably be a whole lot wealthier in a few years, after the case was settled out of court.

The average wait in an ER in PA is 6 hours. If someone comes in to our ED with a hot appendix previously diagnosed, our triage nurse would know it and they would be pushed to the front of the line...

[needsmore$]

EMS providers must transport emergencies to the nearest ER-(unless a trauma or specialized service is needed)-and would not go from 1 ER to another. If a patient can talk in full sentences and use telephones, then she wasn't in that bad of shape. I agree with others-newspapers/media like to print stories to sell newspapers--so the worse the news /story the better.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

In this suit-happy society we are making our own problems!

[TazziRN, RN]

I agree with the others, if the asthmatic were that bad, she wouldn't have been able to call. Granted, she should have been treated fairly quickly, but no way was she that bad.