Hilo Hospital

[Kelena]

I am very glad your surgery went well Scott. Have you considered barrel racing? And WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED to the moonlight kite fly?

[canhle]

Pam,
Sorry to hear about your trouble. Hope you will get well soon.

canhle

[missydog1]

I do think comparing the ER to the regular hospital is apples and oranges. The ER is its own thing. The ER also suffers because too many people can't get in to see a primary care doctor and have to go to emergency as an alternative.

I went to the ER in Hilo and while giving my health history (as a routine intake), I mentioned a medical condition I've had for a long time only to have the intake nurse (male) say that he had never heard of it, and what's more, he didn't believe there was such a condition.

Ignorance compounded by judgmental. []

I was shocked. Without getting into my personal health history, this condition affects over 2% of the population in the US, according to the CDC. That's 2 in 100, and an ER nurse at Hilo has never heard of it, and since he never heard of it, declares that the person giving a health history is making it up. [:0]

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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Originally posted by KathyH...The ER also suffers because too many people can't get in to see a primary care doctor and have to go to emergency as an alternative...

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BINGO.

We need to start from the bottom up - get our primary preventive healthcare system functioning a little less dysfnctionally which will directly affect our HMC.

(Scott - hope all is well!)

[aline]

You are right on when you say the emergency room is totally different than the rest of the hospital. I spent the last six years in an emergency room on the mainland after working on a floor at Hilo Medical.Emergency rooms are no longer used for emergencies. They are expected to fill the void when you cant get in to see your primary care physcian, are used for free pregnancy tests,I say free because the person does not have the money to buy a home pregnancy test so they come to the er, the person who does not want to go to the primary because he cant afford the copay so he comes to the er with a backpain that he has had for six months, or the toothache who comes in by ambulance because they couldnt find a ride. I am not trying to put these people down in any way but when you are waiting in the emergency room with a real need to be there remember that we are also taking care of all these other things too and we only have so much staff and so many rooms to put people in. It goes back to the healthcare crisis in this country that unless it gets fixed real soon will cost all of us much more than we realize.