Even if I were capable of working ER, I wouldn't work here.
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This week, a local media outlet reported that a patient died in the ER lobby on June 6 after waiting for hours to be seen.
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A full day after the report first came out, the hospital disputed the details of what happened with the patient in question, but in vague terms.
“How this story has been described publicly is not how things occurred, but in respect to the family we can’t comment on a specific situation at this time. We can confirm the State has not been on site this week for any reason,” a Novant Health spokesperson said in a statement.
The full statement can be found at the end of this story.
What I'm hearing is that part of the problem is that hospitals have not done enough to retain nurses, and that ER fills up when there are not enough nurses on the hospital floors to care for the new admits. Then, when the hospital tries to muzzle the nurses and threatens to fire anyone who goes to the media, the problem continues ad infiniteum.
Part of the problem is that some people come to the ER when their problem is not an emergency. They use the ER instead of going to their doctor's office. And another part of the problem is that some doctor offices refuse to keep seeing patients who do not pay, so those patients come to the ER instead.
ER is required to at least see every patient, to determine what the emergent problem is and to treat all emergencies. At least one of my local hospitals has a Prompt Care right next to ER, so they can encourage the patient toward the appropriate venue.
Isn't it sad that Americans cannot schedule a visit with their health provider because they owe them money?
Sad and possibly illegal. Does refusal to see an established patient border on abandonment maybe?
A friend told us that he once saw a kid who was sneezing due to allergy. Spoke with mom who said they could not buy an OTC allergy med til payday in 2 weeks. Seems like she could have rustled up a few dollars from family members but maybe really not. He checked with the social worker but she said there were no funds for things like that. There is lots of $ to decorate bulletin boards but none for a med need. Friend didn't think it quite proper to hand them a few dollars of his own. It is so sad, somewhat surprising and troubling that people are so broke.
Everything from Medicaid, Section 8 housing, free schooling, food pantries, 2nd hand clothing at places like Salvation Army, free backpacks filled with school supplies, free haircuts, free meals at school and meals sent home for the weekend and holidays, free bus rides to and from school - all of this is given to these folks, but I guess some things still fall through the cracks. And now Justice Thomas wants to end contraception????? Dear God in Heaven.
Part of the problem is that some people come to the ER when their problem is not an emergency. They use the ER instead of going to their doctor's office. And another part of the problem is that some doctor offices refuse to keep seeing patients who do not pay, so those patients come to the ER instead.
This is partly true. I recently drove someone to the ER and stayed with them for something minor (musculoskeletal). They did call their PCP but the answering service said he would be returning calls within 2 days and if she didn't hear back from him then to call some different number back. (Not sure if this was to keep people calm given the recent string of events). Anyway, so off we went.
First thing the ER did was check for meningitis, after that r/o we had a loooonnnnnggggggggggggg wait. The one thing I did like about this hospital was that while we were sitting in that ER a nurse came out to do vitals every 2 hours and give out bottled water and snacks. It was just so ironic to see this happening irl knowing that this chat was going on in allnurses.
As someone mentioned in previous post I think that this is def something a lot of busy ERs should do. Have a designated nurse/nurses/externs/students come out periodically and at least do a set of vitals on everyone.
Kitiger, RN
1,834 Posts
What I'm hearing is that part of the problem is that hospitals have not done enough to retain nurses, and that ER fills up when there are not enough nurses on the hospital floors to care for the new admits. Then, when the hospital tries to muzzle the nurses and threatens to fire anyone who goes to the media, the problem continues ad infiniteum.
Part of the problem is that some people come to the ER when their problem is not an emergency. They use the ER instead of going to their doctor's office. And another part of the problem is that some doctor offices refuse to keep seeing patients who do not pay, so those patients come to the ER instead.
ER is required to at least see every patient, to determine what the emergent problem is and to treat all emergencies. At least one of my local hospitals has a Prompt Care right next to ER, so they can encourage the patient toward the appropriate venue.