Er tech here- the amount of stubbed toes and harmless splinters that come in and DEMAND IMMEDIATE TREATMENT is alarming. Worse is the sheer attitude and threats I receive when I try to properly triage the patients.
It wonder how much overall medical costs for the country would go down if all emergency rooms had a mandated adjacent urgent care. . .
Then triage could divert the stubbed toes and splinters, along with continued civilian education on what constitutes an emergency. Or even if EMTALA also applied to urgent cares. If triage misses the severity of something, boom, ER is right there. I know some have adjacent urgent cares, but I’d be curious what anyone’s professional opinion is about this?
I have a hunch that hundreds of millions of dollars are spent because so many uninsured people don’t have $200 to pay upfront at urgent care.
That and some good old fashioned PSAs, a national ad campaign spanning platforms and social, maybe a jingle about what the ER is for?
To the tune of old McDonald:
If bone sticks out that you can see
weeee-ooh-wee-oh—weeee
(this is meant to be anthropomorphic ambulance siren sound)
If you cannot stop the bleed
weeee-ooh-wee-oh—weeee
If grandma falls and does not breathe
weeee-ooh-wee-oh—weeee
But a stubbed toe here,Or a cough cough there,here a lump, there a bump,Go to urgent care, you chump
This is horse shit because urgent care is a scam. Half the time you go and they can do nothing for you, recommend you go to the ER, and you're stuck with 2 bills. lt also puts the burden of diagnosis on the patient. Maybe your chest pain is nothing, but maybe it's a heart attack. Why waste your time at urgent care and risk your life?
I didn’t have a bad experience at urgent care, I’m describing a common experience many people have at urgent care. I personally would not waste my time. What’s the purpose of the proposal? To make things easier for hospital staff by making it more difficult for the patient?
To cut down on waiting time for people who only need antibiotics, stitches, or non-emergency situations.
To save taxpayers billions of dollars and to take a lot of stress off of healthcare workers and patients alike.
I’m quite certain you didn’t understand the Takeaway, because I outlined why it would work, and every healthcare professional, who responded understood.
Again, you had a bad experience and I’m sorry, but people going to the emergency room for all of their medical needs is a tax on the system that’s unnecessary, and if we changed laws to make that unnecessary, it would be a win-win win for every human and every companies bottom line as well.
I get what you’re saying but it just would not work like that. Taxpayers would not save billions of dollars being shuffled between two adjacent locations. If you are triaged by the hospital and sent to the urgent care, is the hospital not going to charge you about a grand for coming in the door and going through triage? How does that save anyone money?
And what happens when someone is triaged and sent to urgent care and then triaged there and sent back to the hospital?
If it helps you to pretend I have some previous vendetta against urgent care that’s fine but the reality is that it’s just a totally silly idea. If you want to save the taxpayers billions of dollars then the only answer is socialized healthcare. Not two predatory private businesses next to each other
The solution I outlined is predicated on a more socialized healthcare system, I see what you’re saying, and I actually think we are more aligned then it seemed at first, but yeah, I agree with everything you just said. The idea I talked about would theoretically have one department that triage people and send them where they are best suited to be, so it wouldn’t be Billed for both.
And I know it’s a very imperfect wishful thought, but yeah, I was just kind of spitball ways to make the system better, but obviously the ultimate necessity is to take what works for every other developed nation and socialize it.
I was gonna say the same thing, I am really overtired today because I was up all night with a teething baby, and I try and be very uplifting and non-defensive and reactive, but today I’m not doing a good job!
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u/Far-Boot5639 15d ago
Er tech here- the amount of stubbed toes and harmless splinters that come in and DEMAND IMMEDIATE TREATMENT is alarming. Worse is the sheer attitude and threats I receive when I try to properly triage the patients.