What is Wrong with County Hospitals/Clinics?

Question

you have to wait in emergency 12-16 hours to be seen by a doctor? Or you have to wake up 4 a.m. in the morning to go get a ticket in the clinic to get a place in line and come back at 8a.m. when clinic is open. One time they told me to wait 4 hours because x-rays were down. Another time told me to call back in 4 days for a gynecology appt.

Why are the poor and people oppressed? Is this only going to get worse and worse, and what will happen to healthcare system?

Answer 1

There is no healthcare system, and you should be grateful you live where there is a county hospital/clinic. Most of the country don't have that kind of resource.

The US has always treated medicine as a business, especially since the Great Society brought in Medicare and Medicaid. That has brought along four decades of cost-control measures that invariably cause an exponential increase in costs and decrease in availability. The more businessmen and politicians are sure they know better than doctors how to deal with medical care, the worse things get.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm chief of staff of my hospital, and I have trouble getting appointments and I sit in waiting rooms, too.

Answer 2

the problem you are experiencing is not unique. It happens everywhere. the reason emergency rooms become overcrowded is that most ERs use a triage system. the most serious people get seen first regardless of how many less urgent people are waiting. 12-36 hour waits are common with 22 being the national average.  as far as the other wait times go...things happen and everyone gets sick. until more healthcare professionals appear to meet the current demand, the populus will just have to wait.

Answer 3

When you're there in the ER or the clinic, look to the left and look to the right and tell me what you see.  Lots more people waiting to be seen?  Yep.  That's why it takes so long.  We do our best to prioritize in the ER.  In the clinic, it's first come, first served, and that's the best we can do.

I feel the pain, all the more because I am one of those people who is going to be trying for the next five years to make it through those rotations in the ER and in the clinics and fighting to get tests done in anything resembling a timely fashion for my patients.  And I'll be doing it for about a dollar thirteen per hour, by my calculations.  What more can I do?  Tell me, I'd like to know.  I want to be able to help my patients, but I'm one person.

Yes.  It's going to get worse and worse, until we come up with some kind of national health care and acknowledge that it costs money to care for people, that that money is not currently being spent wisely (overhead and mondo salaries for insurance companies and executives and NOT on patient care), and that everyone regardless of ability to pay deserves health care.

Heck, I HAVE insurance and it takes me longer than four days to get an appointment to see my GYN.   It's frustrating from all levels.

Answer 4

It all comes down to money. It costs money to turn the lights on and heat the building, but those pale in comparison to the salaries of the medical staff, lab equipment, CT scanners and MRI machines, surgical equipment, etc. Now lets add on the liability insurance for all of those, because people have to sue for bad outcomes, even though the majority are frivolous. (and that was coming from a malpractice attorney)

Lets add in the fact that insurance companies are taking their cut yet aren't really providing any service. All this on top of a patient base that doesn't have insurance and can't pay the bill.

I think the more relevant question is Just why is it that people think hospitals should operate at a loss and doctors, nurses, etc should work for free?

Answer 5

The wait in the ER is due to the fact that it is treated as a clinic rather that an Emergency Room.  Everything from a rash that has been there for a month to a runny nosed 4 year old comes in and clogs the ER.  I wish I had a dollar for every female that has come into the ER for a preg test.  Most of what we see in the ER could go to a clinic the next day or a regular doctor.. rather than come in at 2 am.  The ER should be for medical Emergencies.

Triage is a necessary evil.. you can't just let someone bleed to death because some one got there earlier with the PID shuffle.  Most of the people we see in the ER that have non-emergent issues have no insurance or money.  They come into the ER to get treated for "FREE".

The clinics (from what I have seen) are under staffed and inefficiently run.  There's alot of hurry up and wait in the clinics.

It all comes down to money.. or the lack of money in the clinics.

As to what will happen to the healthcare system.. we will keep trying to take care of everyone ... no matter what.