Emergency room waits

[StirCrazy]

well I stopped by the hospital after hockey last night and it was standing room only, said screw it and went in this morning after a night of no sleep and pain. it wasn't as full but still quite busy. so as I sit there I am looking at people and the majority of people in there are for sprained ankles, flu/cold, cuts that may need 2 or 3 stitches. so I went in there because I fell playing hockey and broke a rib or two was in intense pain and had difficulty breathing.

so as I waited for 2.4 hours to get into a bed I watch the people that are so sick going out for smokes, others with sprained ankles walking around to the vending machines getting coffee/food, ect.. I think about 80% of the people in there would have been better served by going to a walk-in clinic. do people not realize it is 500.00 just for registering and having the doctor take a look at you in the ER. a clinic is like 50.00 we wonder why there are long line ups and such at the ER's well if you need something to do on a weekend take a trip down and see what kinda of waist of our tax money is pouring into the ER's instead of into doctors offices and clinics.

ok done my rant. me and my broken ribs are going to go take it easy now.

Steve

[fakename]

As a GP in BC I can bill $28 when I see you in a walk in clinic.......this covers everything I get paid, the salary of any staff and all of the overhead.
NO ONE gets paid anything like $50 to see walk in clinic patients. Walk ins or Family doctors offices are far cheaper than emergency rooms, and often faster too.........it would be great if people kept that in mind when they went up to the Emerg for trivial problems....

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by fakename

As a GP in BC I can bill $28 when I see you in a walk in clinic.......this covers everything I get paid, the salary of any staff and all of the overhead.
NO ONE gets paid anything like $50 to see walk in clinic patients. Walk ins or Family doctors offices are far cheaper than emergency rooms, and often faster too.........it would be great if people kept that in mind when they went up to the Emerg for trivial problems....

exactly my point, the 50 bucks was a rounded off number I though a Dr told me it was actually about 40something, but it is cool we have a GP on the board and can give us the real numbers, and it is realy good we are typing on a computer cuz we all know how easy a Dr.'s writing is to read
my whole point is why are walk in clinics and family offices not utilized more instead of the ER, and why are people going to the ER for things that can easily wait till morning I have always stressed this to my kids and when they are working and paying taxes I hope they realize the difference and remember not to run to the ER for trivial things. I was reading the price break down at the ER desk for people who don't have insurance and there is no way in hell you can see the ER docs and walk out of there with less than a 1000.00 buck bill. how much they actually charge Medicare I am not sure but I still believe it will be a hell of a lot more than what a Dr. office or walk in would be.

Steve

Steve

[trilinearmipmap]

Yes I absolutely agree that many people abuse the emergency room.

On a typical ER shift when I work (for example tomorrow for 24 hours) 2/3 of the people will be non-emergency cases and 1/3 of the people will be urgent or emergency cases.

The solution is to charge people user fees.

Charge a $5.00 user fee to visit a doctor's office, this would cut down on unnecessary office visits. Charge a $25.00 user fee for ER visits, you would see the number of ER visits reduced by half.

However none of this will ever happen, there are too many people looking out for themselves.

I believe this is known as the tragedy of the commons, when something is communally owned by everybody (for example our health care system), then nobody has any incentive to take proper care of it.

Oh and incidentally waiting 2-1/2 hours with chest pain and shortness of breath represents a failure of the ER's triage system. You might have had a collapsed lung, people with potentially life threatening conditions are supposed to be seen immediately while the others wait.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

Oh and incidentally waiting 2-1/2 hours with chest pain and shortness of breath represents a failure of the ER's triage system. You might have had a collapsed lung, people with potentially life threatening conditions are supposed to be seen immediately while the others wait.

ah but I didn't have shortness of breath, just pain in my broken rib when I took anything but a shallow breath.. they did ask me if I was experencing shortness of breath and I replied no, I am just breathing shallow so it doesn't hurt as much. so I don't fault anyone fo rthe amount of time I waited.

Steve

[Tarolisol]

Charge a $5.00 user fee to visit a doctor's office, this would cut down on unnecessary office visits. Charge a $25.00 user fee for ER visits, you would see the number of ER visits reduced by half.

This is exactly what we dont need, it goes against everthing canada has built up with our medicare. Now time for my emergency room rant

I went to an emegency room with pains in my lower adomen which everyone always assumes is your appedix. I was in so much pain i couldnt walk i was lying in the emergeny room waiting room for 3 hours before i got into see a doctor. Oh and it was my appendix. I am not one to complain and rarly see a doctor i was even risiliant to go this time. if there had been a 25 dollar fee i porbly wouldnt have gone and who knows what would have happend. I did see a lot of people that didnt look to bad, not one person in there was in as much pain as i was. Then the first thing they say to me as there sticking Ivs from me and taking blood is why was i waiting so long, if i wasnt in so much pain they would have gotten an earfull.

[Johnny Reefer]

Not sure if it's gone up, but in 1999 an ambulance call out cost $50.
In light of this it makes total sense to me to charge a user fee for the ER.
But for NON emergency cases only. They could be billed later. And it should be significant. Say $50.

And a big huge sign warning people that "Non Emergency Cases Will Be Subject To A $50.00 Admitting Fee" probably would help. Maybe it could also have a reference associated with it, listing all the Walk-Ins in town.
I bet after reading such a sign, most non emergency cases, with any common sense, would turn right around and walk out the door.

Sure, there would probably be some delays created by some who would demand that their case is an emergency, but that likely already happens, given the present backlogs and people's impatience.

I am by no means an expert on this, however. I suspect there are reasons for doing it the way they do. (Such as trying to see everyone to avoid the disaster of determining someone as non emergency when they actually were. Some cases would be obvious, though).

Just my 2 cents.

[vanreefer]

What about those who can't afford the $50 .... aren't we becoming like our neighbours to the south... where we think twice about seeking medical attention... put it off and put it off until for example in tarolisols case his appendix bursts he then has to call an ambulance his surgury becomes complicated by the leaking feces from his ruptured appendix he then spends 5-7 days in a hospital bed at least $1000/ night plus the antibiotics for the pneumonia he gets from the ventilator... etc...etc Granted this is the worst case senario... and people do overuse the ER when a clinic would be more appropriate... but I don't think there should be any reason for someone not to go to the hospital when they need to. This being said the triage system in hospitals can be faulted... people quickly learn the "Buzz words" that get them quicker service... for example short of breath or chest pain... It' by no means a perfect system but it does work... eventually

[fishguyxd]

Cool a doc online
now I don't feel so crazy getting into this hobby

HAHA