Houston: No place but a Houston ER

[philip964]

https://www.click2houston.com/news/loca ... 45-minutes

Waited 30 to 45 minutes collapsed from blood loss from bad cut from glass.

Gory photos.

[Oldgringo]

Do you reckon he was the only person needing ER help on a Friday night in Houston? He said he was getting a lawyer; surely, he didn't get in an altercation with his own self?

[philip964]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/h ... 125225.php

Dead patient was unmonitored and found in ER bathroom.

Had been waiting 24 hours for care.

[philip964]

My recent experience with Houston ER’s has been less than satisfactory.

Apparently there is also some law that prevents an ER from telling you over the phone if there will be a long wait.

I have also been told that in many cases the people who are receiving the attention are homeless people “who know their rights”.

I had a Houston Police Officer who was providing armed security at the Med Center ER I was at, kindly suggest to me after an hour of seeing my son in extreme pain from a kidney stone, that a suburban hospital ER was only a 30 minute drive away and that would be far quicker than continuing to wait where I was.

We took his advice, but even when we got there and I asked if there would be a long wait “we cannot give out that information” . But they ended up seeing him immediately.

And we don’t even have socialized medicine yet.

[twomillenium]

There are many, many ER's in Houston. If one paints with a broad brush, then one should expect to be painted with a broad brush.

[03Lightningrocks]

My recent experience with Houston ER’s has been less than satisfactory.

Apparently there is also some law that prevents an ER from telling you over the phone if there will be a long wait.

I have also been told that in many cases the people who are receiving the attention are homeless people “who know their rights”.

I had a Houston Police Officer who was providing armed security at the Med Center ER I was at, kindly suggest to me after an hour of seeing my son in extreme pain from a kidney stone, that a suburban hospital ER was only a 30 minute drive away and that would be far quicker than continuing to wait where I was.

We took his advice, but even when we got there and I asked if there would be a long wait “we cannot give out that information” . But they ended up seeing him immediately.

And we don’t even have socialized medicine yet.

The way I understand it is they give priority based on how life threatening the issue is. Who makes that decision may have been the problem with the person bleeding profusely. I also know an ambulance ride will get you right in but then you get to pay another 700-800 bucks for the ambulance.

My experience here in Plano several years ago. I was having sharp pains in the center of my back. I was around fifty at the time. As soon as I told them my symptoms, they took me right in ahead of several people sitting in the waiting room. I guess potential heart attack rates pretty high. Turned out to be a different issue with nerve damage from collapsed discs in my neck. Once they determined my heart was not the issue, I laid in that emergency room for several hours waiting for an MRI of my neck. They even moved me to a different cubicle where the tummy ache crowd was waiting.

[flechero]

30-45 minutes???? THat's it? It would take that long to get the surgeon on call to the ER to work on him. (rarely are the ER's fully staffed 24/7- they usually have a surgeon of each specialty on call for serious stuff)

I obviously wasn't there but have waited hours before to get sewn up... from actual accidents. (and had to wait for an on call surgeon) So I'm not upset that they attended to others first- they may have been worse off than that guy, who should have been still and applied pressure or wrapped it for the wait. And I'm sure he was a gentleman in asking for faster service.

Never knew I could sue for faster service.

[Take Down Sicko]

This is the kind of service the demos want for all Americans when they apply there free for all medical plan. Long waits, lousy service and getting yelled at by government employees.

[03Lightningrocks]

The way I understand it is they give priority based on how life threatening the issue is. Who makes that decision may have been the problem with the person bleeding profusely. I also know an ambulance ride will get you right in but then you get to pay another 700-800 bucks for the ambulance.

Triage determines how fast you get in.
A lot of people seem to think that an ambulance is a fast pass to be seen, but we have rolled many patients in through the back door who clearly did not need emergent care - and the triage nurse walks them to the waiting room.
I just finished a week of clinicals in Houston, 6 days on 911 trucks running into 4 different hospitals, although that's just a fraction of the ER options - every one of them works the same, just like ours back home. And every one of them was over crowded with people who absolutely did not need to be in an emergency room. A walk in clinic or PCP would have been faster and cheaper.

I have always thought part of the problem is the people who are not actually in need of emergency care. I have always heard they use emergency rooms because they cannot be denied care at the emergency room.

[ELB]

Apparently there is also some law that prevents an ER from telling you over the phone if there will be a long wait.

There are hospitals (eg Central Texas Medical Center)that provide a phone app that will tell you how long the wait is, and I have seen ER wait times advertised on electronic billboards.

Note: this is time to see a triage nurse, not necessarily be treated.

Some ERs let you schedule appointments in the ER via phone app. I think Resolute in New Braunfels does this.