EXACTLY!!

That is why we walked out. They did not want us to leave, we had insurance they could hammer at, I was a paying customer in a sea of non insured patients and they let the hook get out of my mouth.

I did not even want to go to begin with, it was my wife that insisted, when I saw the huge crowd in the back, my wife saw the rage in my eyes and cooperated with my decision to get the hell out of there.

Its not only the poor's doctors office its every doctors office when they are closed. Rarely do they spend any time on the phone with you to decide if you can wait until morning.

They just blurt out, take it to the emergency room.

Next time close your eyes and pretend you are dead. If they manage to wake you up, speak spanish.

I'm guessing they are using some kind of triage system and you didn't "promote" your case enough.

The ER is not every doctor's office when the office is closed. It is not mine. I won't practice like that for two reasons.

1. I don't want my patients going to the hospital and waiting aroung the ER all day and night.

2. I don't want to have to drag my fat ass down to any hospitals to see my patients if I can avoid it, and I can avoid it.

I like Kaiser. They don't do any sort of routine care on their medicare HMO diabetic patients(which is sort of medicare fraud on a large, even vast scale, okay it is not sort of it is) As a taxpayer, I am sort of peeved by this, but can't complain too much because they come and pay me cash to do something that Uncle Sucker already paid Kaiser to do. Had a couple of fixed income ladies that I ended up taking care of for free every other time because otherwise they would not come in often enough. They eventually passed away, but there will be others, no doubt.

Pretty much SOP I'm afraid to say.....A few years ago, I fell off a ladder, tore my ankle away from my leg and broke the leg in 2 places.....I used a piece of lumber for a crutch to get to my truck and drove 90 miles to get to a hosp. near home; using the parking brake to stop as I couldn't bare the pain of using the pedal.

They looked at me after 4 hrs, did X-rays and a splint....After 6 hrs, they send me home and told me my doc. was expecting me in his office the next day.....I got no treatment at all, a splint and a few pain meds....(Couldn't done that on the job site myself with some lumber, towels and Whiskey!!!!!)

Next time, I'll go to the small town hosp, I drove right past.......

..and just TRY to get medical help if you don't have your insurance card with you. The last two times my wife had to go to the ER for a dislocated shoulder she did not even get a "how are you feeling" before they asked for the insurance card. I felt like being a smart a$$ and asking "Que?" just to see if they would waive me through....

O.k., Mike - This really works:

Nurse "Whassamatta you?"

Mike "Ohhh! I'm having an appendicitus attack".....then, "Arghh!"! (clutch left side of chest with left hand while pointing to appendix with right forefinger) "AND I'M HAVING THESE AWFUL CHEST PAINS!""

During the last 2 years of my 93 year old mom's life I took her to the emergency room at all hours of the day and night, more times than I can remember. I think on the second visit, after my suffering mom had sat for an hour and a half with me in the waiting room, a middle aged guy ambles in and casually says "I'm having chest pains." Wham bam, he's on a gurney and into the ER.

"Mom, you're having chest pains and they are going to go away as soon as they take you in, o.k."

"Nurse! My mom's having chest pains!" Wham bam.....she's wheeled right in.

From that point on, for whatever reason I had to rush over to her assisted living apartment to rush her to the ER, she feigned chest pains and was immediately admitted. Yeah, it always resulted in an electrocardiogram...but who's counting?

Not exactly honest, but I'll be DAMNED if I'd subject her to the torture of sitting in a wheelchair for hours (and it could be that long or longer).

Sorry some of you had bad events & care.
I loved working emergency med & trauma, but like so many things ..
you can get TRE service, or Motormeister.
Rika

knock on wood, I've had very good ER services at a variety of LA hospitals. When I was with Kaiser I got stitches in my head and the intern did an amazing job (attending said that I was better off having the intern do it as he does more stitches in a day than he'd do in a month). Twice went in with gastroenteritis needing IV and compazine and was fixed right up.

Post-Kaiser my son went in twice in Pasadena, once for a hot water burn, the other time for a corneal scratch. Fairly painless visits...a couple hours each. I got more stitches in my head and same story. For the motorcycle accident I got really good and quick care. I may have lucked out with timing and logistics, but we got wheeled in at 12:30am Saturday morning and left in a cab at 5am.

These places have issues, but I can't complain. I go in expecting it to be 8-12 hours. That is the reality of the ER. I've been happy when I get out in less than 4.

its against the law to take insurance information before the patient is triaged at the ER. $50,000 fine, EMTALA.

When I had a nasty concussion(bad memory loss, etc)from an MX accident I was in the ER waiting. This kid came in having shot his hand into pulp with his dads shotgun. He had a beach towel around it and it was all blood red. The kid was howling and the father was trying to keep him calm. Shortly thereafter it was my turn and I asked if the kid could go before me and they let him. I couldn't believe I had to ask.

But to be fair I've had pretty good service.

Apparently there are some advantages to living in a small town. My visit to the ER which ended up in a 7 day stay in the hospital was done efficiently. Wasn't waiting more than 5 minutes or so. Other nice thing about a small town is there is a chance you might know someone in the hospital which means they may actually care about you. Turns out I knew the wife of the radiologist and my surgeon lived next door to one of my best friends.

Tell them you think you are having a heart attack.

They take you right away.

Then, BTW, I also have this other thing going on......

no Mr Makita...and a 12" cut off disc. I was cutting a shock bot off my gti and it jumped and went straight into my leg full blast..thank god it was relaxed and not being used (the muscle) it did not really hurt..it felt weird. almost like burning, but not painfull that bad..the blood did not spurt or anything..but it felt ****ed up to fell it run down my leg. I was calm and went in the house and asked my mom to take me to the hospital..she about fainted
it goes without saying i am very hesitant to use grinders and cutoff wheels now.:p

oh...i did not know it went into bone till they were cleaning it and i saw the cau

Do not go to a major ER facility. We found a nice new satellite ER facility 15 mins from our home operated by Seattle's Swedish Hospital.

I have been there 4 times in the last 6 months. 2x for my 7 yo boy who is a little bit clumsy, once for my wife who fell off a horse and once for a visiting exec that threw out his back. Served *immediately* every time, filling out paper work while the nurses and docs (yes, more than one at times) tended to the patient. Almost a spa like experience, they even had a stocked fridge for the hungry parents and impatient siblings.

Generally the truth. ER is a nasty place. It is a place most docs loath. The number of patients is impossible really plan for. Some days it is desolated, other days it is a waiting list 8-10 hours long. Those patients have to be prioritized according to how seriously ill they are. That is very difficult to grasp when as a patient one feel I am as sick as anybody else in the waiting room. Quite simply a very tricky business.

I want to hear more about the guy who broke his dick; how did they fix it? A splint? Did he live to boink another day? That's some scary stuff.

Yes, MRI....it had that printed on the side of the machine. They injected dye into the IV......:eek:

Pain meds would have been nice and would have made the wait less traumatic....

Surgery was conducted at 8am, 10 hours after I showed up. The "team" couldn't even get the terminology right...one said, "perforated", the second "gangrenous", while the third used both terms.

BUT MY POINT IS......

I'm insured, I'm subsidizing the ER system and I still get the end of the line....

I went by my P-car wrench's shop today where I buy parts that I need NOW....he's Dutch and his wife is Irish.....their comments were that back home with socialized medecine, they are guaranteed crappy care but with a paid policy they get to the front of the line.... here ya just get crappy care.

i was wondering that too..i mean i laugh when i see the viagra commercials and it say that I should seek a dr if i have an erection for 4 hours...dude if i get that, i am heading to the city with a hundred bucks...:D or looking up a few of Byron's friends

Mikez,
When my appendix ruptured in 4/04, I went to the Er at 3:30pm, sat there for several hours until a Dr saw me, he ordered tests, etc... by the time the test results came back, it was 11:00pm and I went into surgery at midnight, no pain meds offered. i think this is considered "routine", but it sure doesn't feel "routine" when it's your appendix that's ruptured, does it?