TOTALLY GEEKED!

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

RE: Doctors and Hospitals Are Adding Sneaky New Fees

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

I know what you mean LGS. When I was there last there was several there that really could have gone to the clinic instead of backing up the ER.

While waiting, of course you talk to people, one woman was there holding her middle figure. It was obviously broken. That thing was huge and extremely misshapen. She said she had done it the day before and it was getting infected and then she showed me her knuckle. You could see the bone! Why on earth had she not gone to her doctor already?

Another was there because she had a cough for a month and she was sure she had pulled something in her stomach from it. Now I do not doubt that she had, but why wait so long to go to the doctor?

There was three young girls come in, one had a fever. That was it. A fever. Ok.

And then there are those who go out to smoke constantly. They are so terribly sick but they go out to smoke?

And the ones claiming illness but eating and drinking all manner of things while waiting. If I am sick enough that I need the ER, food is not going to be passing my lips.

The ones who abuse the ER make those who really need emergency care have to wait.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

We have lived here six years and have only been to the ER three times. Once for my son way in the beginning. Next was when SS had the flu but we didn't know it. There was a wait time of something like eight hours so they referred us to the doc in the box and we ended up not even going to the ER. The last time was when I needed 8 mg of morphine and a lesion lanced. My doctor sent me because she couldn't fit me in and didn't want to me to wait.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

I have gone many times in my life. They all involved situations that could not wait.

Broken bones, large cuts needing stitches, extreme and sudden illness, heart attacks.

flan327 · Itty bitty's Grammy

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
My rule of thumb: I don't go to the ER unless I am vomiting blood. Anything else, I can tough out till morning and my doctors office opens at 0900.

I went to the ER after vomiting non-stop for 3 hours. This was in addition to a killer migraine. DH called my doctor's answering service, who told me which hospital to go to.

They kept me for a couple hours & we finally got home about 3:00 a.m.

flan

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

lilyofcourse wrote:
I know what you mean LGS. When I was there last there was several there that really could have gone to the clinic instead of backing up the ER.

While waiting, of course you talk to people, one woman was there holding her middle figure. It was obviously broken. That thing was huge and extremely misshapen. She said she had done it the day before and it was getting infected and then she showed me her knuckle. You could see the bone! Why on earth had she not gone to her doctor already?

Another was there because she had a cough for a month and she was sure she had pulled something in her stomach from it. Now I do not doubt that she had, but why wait so long to go to the doctor?

There was three young girls come in, one had a fever. That was it. A fever. Ok.

And then there are those who go out to smoke constantly. They are so terribly sick but they go out to smoke?

And the ones claiming illness but eating and drinking all manner of things while waiting. If I am sick enough that I need the ER, food is not going to be passing my lips.

The ones who abuse the ER make those who really need emergency care have to wait.

The problem is a systematic one, not necessarily the patients. There are many things that are URGENT but not EMERGENT. 2 different things. There is no reason why there can't a triage system where you are filtered and sent to the Emergency Room on one side and the Urgency Room on the other. The problem is that present day doctors are not available anymore like they used to be. In olden days, the local family doctor took care of the vast majority of things and would take calls at home and call you in prescriptions or advise you and/or see you first thing in the morning. Now, there have been so many walls erected to access care, that when people are sick, they don't know anything else to do but go to the ER. For awhile, there seemed to be a rise of Urgent Care centers but most of them have disappeared. But, why can't hospitals take the lead on that?

Southern_Belle · Nothing's Impossible

A hospital I used to work in built an urgent care clinic on the property. They filtered all the urgent and not so urgent needs over there. This freed up the staff to care for true emergencies.

Southern_Belle · Nothing's Impossible

I've been to the emergency room once in 20 years.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

Southern_Belle wrote:
A hospital I used to work in built an urgent care clinic on the property. They filtered all the urgent and not so urgent needs over there. This freed up the staff to care for true emergencies.

Yes, that is great. I would love to see more of that. There needs to be a way for people get have some access to care during Non Office hours, weekends, holidays, etc that isn't the ER.

Ilumine · Regular

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
Southern_Belle wrote:
Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
Right but there could some idea given.
It probably falls into the "you really don't want to know" category.
You should know. Why can't I be told, the average cost for an uncomplicated gallbladder surgery for a 2 day stay is $9000? That is why the healthcare system is such a mess. Nobody knows what anything costs. Patients can't shop around and compare prices and they absolutely should be able to do so.

Well, this is because each hospital IS different. Ex, my OB's office had a fully paid off, older model U/S machine. SO while the Standard of Care for U/S during a pregnancy is 2 (1st Trimester - dating, checking on uterine vs ectopic, confirmation of cardiac activity and late 2nd/early 3rd Trimester - fetal anomalies, determination of fetal location, etc), they were more open to giving free U/S during a pregnancy and not charging either the patient or the Insurance companies.

But when my doctor bought into a newer practice, he had to stop giving out the freebies because the new practice had a couple of brand spanking new U/S machines that had to be paid off. So no more freebies and no extras charged to the Insurance companies because the medical necessity process (most of the patients are TRICARE or MEDICARE) is a pain. Dr. W was open and honest about it.

You have hospitals that are attached to Med Schools or research facilities, where certain specialties are either subsidized by the schools or grant dollars. SO that hospital MAY have lower costs because of the subsidy or use of med students. OR, because one hospital has the best Gastro department in the area, the costs may be more because those doctors expect a higher salary.

OR the costs of your gallbladder surgery differ depending on if you use a general surgeon or a surgeon that specializes in Gastro...

The only way to handle these differences is to socialize that part of care, like they do in Germany. Of course, then you only have specialty care in state mandated hospitals, based on regions. Which means you have to go to see your OB/Gyn at one hospital, your Gastro at another hospital and your Dermatologist at another. And god forbid your child has an emergency because then you have to drive or take an ambulance 20 kilos away from your house, even though you LITERALLY live in the shadows of another hospital. And as a doctor who specialized, your choices of where you live in your home country are so slim, because your choices are so much lower.

Yeah....so while I do wish our Medical System was more straight forward, I have LIVED the downsides of those "easier" solutions.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

If people were paying cash, hospitals would quickly and easily be able to tell you the cost of a procedure. But, they don't have too, so they won't.

voiceofreason · Guru

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
lilyofcourse wrote:
I know what you mean LGS. When I was there last there was several there that really could have gone to the clinic instead of backing up the ER.

While waiting, of course you talk to people, one woman was there holding her middle figure. It was obviously broken. That thing was huge and extremely misshapen. She said she had done it the day before and it was getting infected and then she showed me her knuckle. You could see the bone! Why on earth had she not gone to her doctor already?

Another was there because she had a cough for a month and she was sure she had pulled something in her stomach from it. Now I do not doubt that she had, but why wait so long to go to the doctor?

There was three young girls come in, one had a fever. That was it. A fever. Ok.

And then there are those who go out to smoke constantly. They are so terribly sick but they go out to smoke?

And the ones claiming illness but eating and drinking all manner of things while waiting. If I am sick enough that I need the ER, food is not going to be passing my lips.

The ones who abuse the ER make those who really need emergency care have to wait.
The problem is a systematic one, not necessarily the patients. There are many things that are URGENT but not EMERGENT. 2 different things. There is no reason why there can't a triage system where you are filtered and sent to the Emergency Room on one side and the Urgency Room on the other. The problem is that present day doctors are not available anymore like they used to be. In olden days, the local family doctor took care of the vast majority of things and would take calls at home and call you in prescriptions or advise you and/or see you first thing in the morning. Now, there have been so many walls erected to access care, that when people are sick, they don't know anything else to do but go to the ER. For awhile, there seemed to be a rise of Urgent Care centers but most of them have disappeared. But, why can't hospitals take the lead on that?

Wow. We have them nearly on every corner. In my area, I know of 12 within a 5 mile radius. Plus either cvs or walgreens has them in their stores as well.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

Yeah we have a ton around here as well. There were a ton in Indiana as well. The biggest problem is determining if they are on your insurance plan or not.

People are using the urgent care as a primary care physician though. So while you may go there with a broken arm or something of a more serious but not emergent nature, you have to wait for Suzy with the sniffles to be seen.

When we lived in Indiana, there was a serious lack of primary care physicians. And if you wanted someone specific (English speaking, or female, etc) it was worse. Most PCP were not taking new patients. Many that would see a new patient took months to get an appointment.

Because there are not a lot of PCP, people use the emergency room or the urgent care for the simple things.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

We have 3 levels of care available to us through our hospital.

Across the road from the ER is convenient care. That is for general, everyday stuff. They can do X-rays and labs and prescribe. You see PAs. If you need more than they can do, they send you to the hospital.

There we have urgent care and the ER. Both share the same waiting/reception and triage. Urgent can treat more serious illness and injuries. Set broken bones, stitches. Do procedures and treat with drugs, there is one doctor for about 10 beds.

The ER is for immediately needing care. Heart attacks, major trauma, things that need a cute attention.

My only problem is when one or the other are full, they use available space in the other.