Often times when you call your doctor and no one answers the phone the message will usually say: ” In case of emergency call 911.” The only reason why our patients call us first is because they want to avoid prolonged and painful hours at E.R. waiting room. Some of my patients had to wait for eight hours before they were seen by a doctor or a nurse. These patients arrived to a Hospital E. R. in order to get an immediate pain relief. However, the E.R. works differently than the way I operate my clinic, or many other private practice doctors, when someone wants to get an immediate pain relief.
Last Friday my wife called me at 6.45pm. I was finishing up with my files for the day. She informed me that our three and a half year old boy got inside of the bag which was hidden in a kitchen cabinet. Inside of the bag was a bottle of Resveratrol that my wife is taking as a daily nutrition supplement. We were not sure either he ate or he threw the pills in a toilet, like he has a tendency to do with everything else. Regardless of what happened my wife took him to a local Hospital E.R.
I have arrived to a Hospital E.R. at 7.00 pm. When I walked into the ER the nurse was checking the vitals of our son. She has informed us that we are on a fast track and will be seen by a specialist in 20-30 minutes. She also informed us that while we are waiting she is going to check with Poison Control about how toxic the supplements are to a Child.
Two hours later she informed us that the supplements are not toxic at all and the child will be fine. However, she insisted for us to stay and have blood and urine analysis done. We agreed.
They called us in at 9.30 pm, that was already two hours behind the promised schedule. Taking blood from a child was a nightmare. They had to do it two times. It was a traumatizing experience for me watching it and holding him.
Nurse informed us that the lab work will take about 20 minutes and they will know what is going on. That was around 10.00 pm. While we were waiting a nurse suggested that we provide a urine sample as well. We stayed at the hospital till 11.30 pm and waited for the lab results.
A simple procedure took four and a half hours. If I had to take this amount of time in my office to treat patients with the pain I would be out of business by now. I don’t understand how cone these Hospitals prosper and at the same time run so inefficient. My only assumption is that Hospital Administration knows that they are they only game in town and patients have no place to go but to stay and wait. This is not the case with
Chiropractic care in my clinic. If I don’t provide the best possible care to my patients in a timely manner these patients will go to another Chiropractor. I want to assure you that there are more Chiropractic offices in five miles radius of my practice than there coffee shops.
Does this story sound familiar to you or am I the only one who spent many hours in a Hospital E.R? Please tell me about your Hospital E.R. Experience in a comment Section. Thank you.
