Recession?

quote:

Originally posted by teyates:
The reason that you have to wait 5 hours in an emergency room to see a docotr is because the ERs are being flooded with people who misuse the resource at hand. The fact that you had insurance makes no difference to the people who are seeing patients, they see them based on the degree of the emergency. ER were not meant to be treated like docotrs office were colds and aches can be treated relatively quickly and the patients can get in and out ina timely fashion.

I had a poisonous spider bite. Had the spider with me. Had a 103 degree fever, chills, vomiting, blacking out. Hardly a cold.

Then you need to be seen, and the gist of my reply was not directed at you, but the others who misuse the ER. There are many who use it as a clinic, for the simple reason we have already skirted around. They KNOW they will be seen, whether they pay for it or not. When the bill comes they can ignore it or throw it away and nothing will be done. Their misues causes the wait which you endured. And as you saw it made no difference if you had insurance or not.
The shortage of primary care physicians is a very real problem, especially in a place like NW Alabama where it is notoriously hard to recruit physicians due to the amount of call and decreased reimbursement they may face.
I hope you have recovered well from the spider bit, that happened to my grandfather many years ago and it almost killed him. Spider bites can be a serious medical problem, and then when you get past the initial sickness you have to deal with a wound that sometimes refuses to heal.