I can hardly wait to get some of that down here...
During my big motorcycle wreck drama of '00, the first place the ambulance whisked me was Grady Memorial, the big Atlanta public hospital. As soon as I was conscious enough to wave my insurance card, I was whisked off to nice, private Piedmont for rehab. Talk about night and day... One place treated me like an inmate, the other like a customer. Call me fickle, but I definitely prefer the latter.
A PS: Ironically, I met several folks at Grady who were obviously dedicated, competent folks on a health care mission, from the compassionate ER nurse to the Orthopedic surgeon who rescued me from abandonment in the X-ray room, to the nice guy who removed the eleventeen jillion staples from my right leg without flinching at my language or swinging back at me (I throw a lousy left jab, anyway) before bandaging me up again. But they were as scattered roses among the manure piles of indifferent administrative types, surly orderlies, and various other functionaries who acted as if you were somehow interrupting their mandatory break time by having the audacity to be all busted up in their hospital. A case in point:
I'm lying in bed, a morphine drip in my arm and three out of four limbs immobilized, when the orderly comes strolling in pushing the meal tray. He leaves it by the foot of the bed.
"Uh, excuse me..."
He keeps walking.
"Hey, um, excuse me a minute!"
He's at the door.
"Hey! Wait! PLEASE!"
He's gone.
I'm lying there, unable to even sit up under my own power or move anything but my left arm. That food tray might as well have been in Nairobi for all my chances of reaching it. I pushed the nurse call button and waited. Nada. I pushed it again. Nothing. One last time. Bupkis.
About fifteen minutes after the final push, the orderly strolls back in.
"Oh, thank God you're here!" I gush.
He takes the (untouched) cart and starts pushing it towards the door.
"HEY! Waitaminnit, dammit!"
Gone.
Try selling me on some public health care, will you? Believe me, I've developed some pretty strong opinions on the topic. (Remind me to expand on the "abandoned in the X-ray room" part from above, sometime.)
But...but...what about the people who can't afford private health insurance?
ReplyDeleteThey should figure out a way to get some. Maybe start a Blogger's Union or something...
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't that long ago that I carried my own private health insurance. Ran me about twice what it's costing me to have my employer pay for it instead, and the coverage was better. (Go figure.)
ReplyDeleteAnd, damn. Sixteen hours is a long time to wait for admission to the emergency room. Last time I had to bother with something like that, I think the whole trip took less than five.
Wow. I was bitching about having to wait 3 hours with my son's broken elbow...
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, the Quebec health care system has been in a tailspin for years now. I know that all the provincial systems are burdened with people using the ERs as family doctors.
ReplyDeleteI live in Ontario and can only speak about my experiences here. I had a heart attack during the night in January 2005, took a taxi (I know, AD) to the best hospital in Toronto, stated I thought I was having a heart attack, was admitted and had my first IV beta blocker in about 20 minutes. I had about five medical staff around me. (I did walk by the usual groaning, bleeding and semi-conscious types you find in an ER at 3:00am.)
That's my experience.
Regards,
George
But it's FREE!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an institutional problem to me. In six years as a paramedic, I never treated a pattient that badly, even the drunks. And abandonment of a patient, even within a hospital, is a serious legal issue for which an individual or a hospital can be sued. But the orderly just sounds like an asshole.
ReplyDeleteA: We need to do sumpin', 'cause this ain't workin' out.
ReplyDeleteB: Your story of the food tray made me want a WayBack Time Machine, rather badly. Throw in the optional Teleportation Drive, and I get to throw bedpans at deadpans.
The big news down here is that Grady is about to fold for lack of funds. They claim to need 20 million RIGHT F'ING NOW or they will have to close the doors. Of course all the pimps and whores, sorry, politicians and community leaders, continually point out that it is the only level 1 trauma center in the state among other things. BTW, it is run by a gov't appointed board and not by a non-profit board, the only hospital in the state like that. Of course the pimps don't want to let go of that power, regardless of what the whores say. The scary thing is that they are talking about taxing the productive suburbs to fund it since Grady "serves all of north GA". I guess I could start taking my kids down there every time they get the sniffles if I'm going to be paying for it, but I'm afraid they'd catch something serious, if in fact we weren't shot or run over while in that part of town and sent to Grady anyway.
ReplyDeleteAs for insurance, don't get me started! I should probably pound this out on my own blog, but suffice it to say that I don't have medical insurance by choice. Paid cash for 2 out of the 3 kids too.
Sorry, Tam, but I think I've figured it out. You moved from GA to TN on the lam because you went back into the hospital after you recovered and WHACKED THE FRIGGIN ORDERLY, didn't you?
ReplyDeleteNo further questions, Your Honor.
:)
tweaker
How could you be hungry with a morphine drip in your arm ?
ReplyDeleteGeez, I would have had trouble just keeping down what I had.
If you had shot the orderly in the leg do you think that would have gotten his attention ?
Probaly not, huh.
Mike
At that point, Mike, Tam's guns were in the hands of a patrol officer who was begging fate to give him the most interesting scenario to explain a 6 foot chick sportbike rider with a Cimarron and a Glock 29 on her when she crashed. Gunrunner?
ReplyDelete