How to Get Faster Emergency Medical Care
Source: Harry Alberts, MSW, a certified social worker, formerly with the New York State Department of Health
These days, most emergency rooms (ERs) are characterized by confusion and chaos. But inside knowledge of how the system works can get you better treatment.
First Step: A triage (“sorting”) nurse will assess the priority of your medical need. This person will look you over and then ask several questions. Be prepared to give your medical history succinctly and descriptively.
Planning: Before a medical emergency strikes, prepare a card that lists your medical history, including allergies or other chronic conditions and previous operations or serious illnesses. Keep it handy and, in an emergency, take it to the hospital.
Organize your thoughts so that you’re able to describe, clearly and accurately, symptoms, time of onset and medications taken. Don’t draw conclusions or give opinions unless you’re a physician. And don’t selectively omit information. If you have breathing or bleeding problems, indicate these first, firmly and clearly.
Reason: Life-threatening conditions are given priority.
After seeing the triage nurse – and sometimes even before – you must make arrangements for payment.
Helpful: On your medical history card, include information about your medical insurance coverage, date of birth, Social Security number and the name, address and phone number of your employer.
For complex conditions: Go to a large teaching hospital.
Advantage: University affiliation…best-trained staff…advanced technology that most other hospitals can’t afford.
Hospitals in general, including teaching hospitals, come in three varieties: Private for-profit, private not-for-profit and government-run public hospitals.
Myth: Public hospitals are the worst…some are, in fact, excellent.
Advantage of for-profit hospitals: They’re usually less crowded since they generally turn away those who can’t pay. Private not-for-profit hospitals, many of which receive funding that obligates them to serve the poor, and public hospitals tend to be crowded. If you’re a high-priority case and your public hospital is a teaching hospital, you may get the best care there.
Important: Location of a hospital…and contracts that it may have to care for special groups. Hospitals that receive admissions from “combat zones” or are convenient to public transportation are likely to have a crowded emergency room. Hospitals that have a contract to treat emergency cases from a local mental hospital, center for the retarded, prison or shelter are also apt to be more crowded…often with high-priority cases. A low-priority case, such as a broken arm, might be treated faster at a walk-in emergency medical center – where it would be a high priority.
Hospitals that take Medicaid and Medicare (almost all) are always more crowded in areas where few doctors accept these types of insurance.
Reason: People simply go to the ER instead of a doctor’s office.
Especially crowded time in all ERs: Saturday nights.
Inside information: If you arrive at a hospital by ambulance, you will usually receive a higher priority, even if you could have gotten to the hospital without the ambulance. If your condition is serious enough that taking an ambulance isn’t frivolous, it’s a good idea to call one.
Best: Arriving in the hospital’s own ambulance, because you then automatically become on e of the hospital’s patients…and its patients receive priority.
Caution: If your insurance company determines that an ambulance was not medically necessary, you could be stuck with a huge bill.
For the same reason, the ambulance of a local volunteer unit or fire district is a good choice.
These people know the local ER personnel, and they are your neighbors. Contribute to their fund drives and post contribution stickers.
If your condition is very serious: Call the police – always dial 911. Police response with an ambulance – or transport by the police, if no ambulance is available – will facilitate matters at the hospital.
Helpful: Call the ambulance a bus, an inside term used by police. They may assume that you or a close relative is a cop and render service accordingly.
These days, most emergency rooms (ERs) are characterized by confusion and chaos. But inside knowledge of how the system works can get you better treatment.
First Step: A triage (“sorting”) nurse will assess the priority of your medical need. This person will look you over and then ask several questions. Be prepared to give your medical history succinctly and descriptively.
Planning: Before a medical emergency strikes, prepare a card that lists your medical history, including allergies or other chronic conditions and previous operations or serious illnesses. Keep it handy and, in an emergency, take it to the hospital.
Organize your thoughts so that you’re able to describe, clearly and accurately, symptoms, time of onset and medications taken. Don’t draw conclusions or give opinions unless you’re a physician. And don’t selectively omit information. If you have breathing or bleeding problems, indicate these first, firmly and clearly.
Reason: Life-threatening conditions are given priority.
After seeing the triage nurse – and sometimes even before – you must make arrangements for payment.
Helpful: On your medical history card, include information about your medical insurance coverage, date of birth, Social Security number and the name, address and phone number of your employer.
For complex conditions: Go to a large teaching hospital.
Advantage: University affiliation…best-trained staff…advanced technology that most other hospitals can’t afford.
Hospitals in general, including teaching hospitals, come in three varieties: Private for-profit, private not-for-profit and government-run public hospitals.
Myth: Public hospitals are the worst…some are, in fact, excellent.
Advantage of for-profit hospitals: They’re usually less crowded since they generally turn away those who can’t pay. Private not-for-profit hospitals, many of which receive funding that obligates them to serve the poor, and public hospitals tend to be crowded. If you’re a high-priority case and your public hospital is a teaching hospital, you may get the best care there.
Important: Location of a hospital…and contracts that it may have to care for special groups. Hospitals that receive admissions from “combat zones” or are convenient to public transportation are likely to have a crowded emergency room. Hospitals that have a contract to treat emergency cases from a local mental hospital, center for the retarded, prison or shelter are also apt to be more crowded…often with high-priority cases. A low-priority case, such as a broken arm, might be treated faster at a walk-in emergency medical center – where it would be a high priority.
Hospitals that take Medicaid and Medicare (almost all) are always more crowded in areas where few doctors accept these types of insurance.
Reason: People simply go to the ER instead of a doctor’s office.
Especially crowded time in all ERs: Saturday nights.
Inside information: If you arrive at a hospital by ambulance, you will usually receive a higher priority, even if you could have gotten to the hospital without the ambulance. If your condition is serious enough that taking an ambulance isn’t frivolous, it’s a good idea to call one.
Best: Arriving in the hospital’s own ambulance, because you then automatically become on e of the hospital’s patients…and its patients receive priority.
Caution: If your insurance company determines that an ambulance was not medically necessary, you could be stuck with a huge bill.
For the same reason, the ambulance of a local volunteer unit or fire district is a good choice.
These people know the local ER personnel, and they are your neighbors. Contribute to their fund drives and post contribution stickers.
If your condition is very serious: Call the police – always dial 911. Police response with an ambulance – or transport by the police, if no ambulance is available – will facilitate matters at the hospital.
Helpful: Call the ambulance a bus, an inside term used by police. They may assume that you or a close relative is a cop and render service accordingly.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 9:52 AM
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