I cut my finger and went to the ER (HMC) for what I thought was a simple couple of stitches. I would have gone to urgent care but my daughter (an RN) said they have no idea what they are doing and she drove me to the ER.
The ER was "full" but the rag I was bleeding into was dripping onto the floor so they sent me back anyway. I sat in the hallway of the ER for a few hours. For almost an hour there was a dead guy behind me also in the hallway (they covered his upper torso and head with a sheet). Finally a doctor came by and said they needed to take an xray before they could stitch it up. Why? I protested against an unnecessary medical procedure that I would ultimately have a co-pay for and he said they needed to ensure there was nothing in the wound. It's an effing cut finger... you can clearly see there is nothing in the wound... I don't need an xray! Anyways after another 2 hours they sent someone else out and basically told me I wasn't getting out of there without an unnecessary xray. At this point it had been about 5 hours since my injury and I was worried about the cut portion dying so I had the xray. Of course the xray showed nothing. It was at least another hour before somebody stitched it.
The cut portion of the finger did actually die from being detached for so long and I had a long course of antibiotics because of it, but fortunately it did grow back. I don't have feeling in it, but I guess I'm lucky its there. To be clear, I didn't cut a portion of my finger off, it was cut deeply.
They were understandably busy, overwhelmed might be a better description, but I believe deliberately holding up treatment until I consented to an unnecessary xray contributed to the fact I have no feeling in the tip of my finger. But at least I didn't wind up like the guy in the hallway behind me. I have no idea what they did to him.
I told my doctor what happened when I scheduled a follow-up visit and she was horrified. She basically said they did a butcher job on me and that I had the type of injury that needed to be stitched up immediately or else there wasn't any point.
To their credit, they did offer me pain medication multiple times while I was waiting. I declined. I wanted to keep my mental facilities as sharp as possible considering I went in on a Friday and came out on a Saturday I was already very tired.
Edited to add: I was there over 6 hours and nobody took any of my information down (like insurance etc). When they were releasing me I asked about that. Don't you want to see my insurance card or anything? The lady seemed kind of confused and said somebody would probably call me for that. I didn't hear from them for a long time until a social worker called me and asked if I needed help applying for Medicaid. I was like, WTF? I had the highest tier HMSA policy offered. It took months to sort the billing out.
Also edited to add: A few years ago my wife went to the ER. Things went pretty well. Over a YEAR later their billing company contacted us and said we owed a co-pay (I made a post about this on Punaweb at the time if you want to find it, though it was on the old server). Long story short, I was able to find the cancelled check showing that we had already paid it a year prior. I wonder how many people get swindled by these "unpaid" bills because they can't find records of something that happened so long ago?
The ER was "full" but the rag I was bleeding into was dripping onto the floor so they sent me back anyway. I sat in the hallway of the ER for a few hours. For almost an hour there was a dead guy behind me also in the hallway (they covered his upper torso and head with a sheet). Finally a doctor came by and said they needed to take an xray before they could stitch it up. Why? I protested against an unnecessary medical procedure that I would ultimately have a co-pay for and he said they needed to ensure there was nothing in the wound. It's an effing cut finger... you can clearly see there is nothing in the wound... I don't need an xray! Anyways after another 2 hours they sent someone else out and basically told me I wasn't getting out of there without an unnecessary xray. At this point it had been about 5 hours since my injury and I was worried about the cut portion dying so I had the xray. Of course the xray showed nothing. It was at least another hour before somebody stitched it.
The cut portion of the finger did actually die from being detached for so long and I had a long course of antibiotics because of it, but fortunately it did grow back. I don't have feeling in it, but I guess I'm lucky its there. To be clear, I didn't cut a portion of my finger off, it was cut deeply.
They were understandably busy, overwhelmed might be a better description, but I believe deliberately holding up treatment until I consented to an unnecessary xray contributed to the fact I have no feeling in the tip of my finger. But at least I didn't wind up like the guy in the hallway behind me. I have no idea what they did to him.
I told my doctor what happened when I scheduled a follow-up visit and she was horrified. She basically said they did a butcher job on me and that I had the type of injury that needed to be stitched up immediately or else there wasn't any point.
To their credit, they did offer me pain medication multiple times while I was waiting. I declined. I wanted to keep my mental facilities as sharp as possible considering I went in on a Friday and came out on a Saturday I was already very tired.
Edited to add: I was there over 6 hours and nobody took any of my information down (like insurance etc). When they were releasing me I asked about that. Don't you want to see my insurance card or anything? The lady seemed kind of confused and said somebody would probably call me for that. I didn't hear from them for a long time until a social worker called me and asked if I needed help applying for Medicaid. I was like, WTF? I had the highest tier HMSA policy offered. It took months to sort the billing out.
Also edited to add: A few years ago my wife went to the ER. Things went pretty well. Over a YEAR later their billing company contacted us and said we owed a co-pay (I made a post about this on Punaweb at the time if you want to find it, though it was on the old server). Long story short, I was able to find the cancelled check showing that we had already paid it a year prior. I wonder how many people get swindled by these "unpaid" bills because they can't find records of something that happened so long ago?