Nightmare In The ER

Have you noticed how much the medical field has changed in the last 50 years?

I know all the surgical techniques and cancer treatments have improved, but the quality of our care? Not so much.

Do you know a doctor that makes house calls? When my kids were little we only had one car. My husband took our car out of town on a business trip and one of our kids got sick.

 Our pediatrician said “no problem I’ll just swing by on my way home from work”. Do you know a pediatrician today that’s going to swing by on his way home from work to see you?

Even in an emergency, care isn’t what it once was. You’re lucky if you can get a doctor to see you at all. And that’s after you call and punch 1000 buttons. You may be dead before you get a live person.

Like having your calls screened, now every doctor has to run you through a process before you get an office visit. You damn well better have a serious illness for the doctor to see you the same day you call.

Oh go to the ER you say? The only way you can get a room in the ER is to come in by ambulance. Learned that the hard way. Otherwise they put you on the list and you sit in a room full of other sick people. Many coughing, bleeding and moaning.

Tell the ER receptionist you think you’re having a heart attack, then they will pay attention to you. Big time. But when they are through with you, if you haven’t had a heart attack, you’re going to need a night in the hospital anyway.

Once they call your name, and you get a room in the ER, it doesn’t mean you will be seen immediately by a physician. They have people to see and things to do. But I did learn the louder you moan the faster the doctor comes. Had to learn that the hard way too.

Should the ER team determine you need to stay overnight at the hospital, don’t expect a hospital bed right away.  It will seem like a year has gone before they can get you a room upstairs. You will wait, and wait, and wait.

Eventually someone will come by and take you to the right floor. Usually this happens in the middle the night, if you’re lucky. You know they say “with age comes experience”. I’ll say.

Navigating through this medical maze is no small matter. Now all the doctors expect you to sort of diagnose yourself. You have to fill out millions of forms. Despite the fact all the physicians are interconnected, and the system already has your records, you need to keep resubmitting them.

Healthcare treatment really begins online now. Fill out the forms. Then get an appointment and see a doctor. Afterwards, to see what the physician found out, go back online and read their diagnosis.

Most of us don’t have medical degrees. You don’t know what those forms are telling you. But you have the right to read them and make your own conclusions.

Pretty soon you’ll be diagnosing yourself and treating yourself too.  Actually you’ll probably do just as good a job as they do. Most of the time it’s guesswork anyway.

I hope none of my millions of doctors read this.

Oh one other complaint. Remember when you had one doctor to do just about everything? Now it takes 10 doctors to do the same thing. They all have their own specialty.  Well, that’s another blog for another day.