Better be an Emergency If You Go to the ER

[NWRMidnight]

feel free to say anything you want the only thing off limits is to call someone a moderator! (last time it got me 4 weeks ban!)

So when you go to the ER with cancer because you have breathing issues what do they do for you? I have several people close to me die of cancer but none of them visited teh ER frequently.

Maybe if they had they would have lived and not died.. There are many Cancer survivors who used the ER and other medical avenues who beat the cancer.. Some people fight and don't give up. But thanks for demonstrating your narrow vision which is just pure stupidity.

 

[Meghan54]

you know this first hand about people going to the ER for pain caused by cancer, or perhaps you are just making it up?

He probably does.

I definitely do know what he's representing is fact as I worked as an RN in various ER's and ICU's in the US, including Tampa General Hospital, Talmadge Mem. Hosp. (Med. Coll. of GA), Univ. Hosp. Augusta, GA, Blanchfield Ft. Campbell, KY, Moncrief Ft. Jackson, SC, Walter Reed, various small and small-ish county ER's and ICU's, over several decades.

My ICU experience includes open heart/cardiovascular recovery, med/general surg, burns, neuro, neonatal. Mostly worked open heart/surg and ER/ED. Neonatal was too damned depressing. Burns wasn't much better. Neuro was "different".


Just wanted to flesh the above out...did 6 mos. in Tampa Gen's trauma unit and flew on Lifeflight a few times. Road ambulances a little as a lark...EMT's thought I was crazy but I was "gold" being there; almost as good as an MD, had way more latitude than the EMT's did. Worked a year for a pediatric cardiologist as his "office" nurse, which meant I was his personal RN who did everything...got trained by him to do cardiac caths. Did that job because his reg. RN had cancer and her treatment kept her from working. I had my CCRN cert, ACLS cert and was an ACLS instructor my last six mos. working as an RN (ulcerative colitis). I worked bits as a contract nurse, did private duty for a couple of friends, each at end stage cancer. Cared for my FIL his last two years after he'd suffered a massive MI that he really shouldn't have survived...he was 82 at the time. I was essentially his live-in RN...got him a couple more years.

 

[killster1]

Yes... so fuck off

yes you are making it up? OK cool, they write them a script for painkillers even tho they are already offered max painkillers when diagnosed? OK cool, well since they are going to be covered for the ER visit i guess they dont count as part of the topic I am truly curious about this pain medicine the first dr skipped over when diagnosing cancer and the immediate need that came about to visit the ER instead of a online consult etc.

 

[killster1]

He probably does.

I definitely do know what he's representing is fact as I worked as an RN in various ER's and ICU's in the US, including Tampa General Hospital, Talmadge Mem. Hosp. (Med. Coll. of GA), Univ. Hosp. Augusta, GA, Blanchfield Ft. Campbell, KY, Moncrief Ft. Jackson, SC, Walter Reed, various small and small-ish county ER's and ICU's, over several decades.

My ICU experience includes open heart/cardiovascular recovery, med/general surg, burns, neuro, neonatal. Mostly worked open heart/surg and ER/ED. Neonatal was too damned depressing. Burns wasn't much better. Neuro was "different".

OK so what do they prescribe the cancer patient for pain that comes to the ER? They could not have consulted the regular dr ahead of time? this of course has nothing to do with really having a emergency at the emergency room so i kinda forget how we even came to this topic of cancer being a emergency.

 

[MtnMan]

yes you are making it up? OK cool, they write them a script for painkillers even tho they are already offered max painkillers when diagnosed? OK cool, well since they are going to be covered for the ER visit i guess they dont count as part of the topic I am truly curious about this pain medicine the first dr skipped over when diagnosing cancer and the immediate need that came about to visit the ER instead of a online consult etc.

I have witnessed several as a firefighter/first responder with EMS to instances of people that can't stand the pain and call EMS to be taken to the ER. Some cancers come with unbearable pain near the end. My MIL also reached that point in her life.

 

[MrSquished]

im not the one arguing it was a quote from you. So funny that you call me political yet i have never voted before does that really make me a right winger?

How is single payer health insurance communism? You are just spouting the go to right wing talking point, ergo you sound like a right winger to me

 

[Meghan54]

OK so what do they prescribe the cancer patient for pain that comes to the ER? They could not have consulted the regular dr ahead of time? this of course has nothing to do with really having a emergency at the emergency room so i kinda forget how we even came to this topic of cancer being a emergency.

Whatever it takes to control it. I've seen morphine, demerol, dilaudid, and a host of others. It's not like you have no access to a pharmacy....hell, the unit drug box has most anything you'd consider giving and if what you want isn't in there, the pharmacy is a call away.

But that's only part of the story...alas, something you don't want to hear.

"This country is too big for univ. health care"......what a dumbass comment.

 

[Ajay]

you def insulting, and how many people with cancer go to the ER? what exactly do you think they go to the ER for after a cancer diagnosis? this country is way to big for communist health care.

You are dead right. We are a democracy, we literally can’t have a communist healthcare system. We do need a national health care system like, uhm, Medicare. Except, for everyone and hopefully even better.

Just stop listening to the wealthy corporations and individuals who run propaganda against such a beneficial system because it will cost them some money. Can’t be blowing money on average Joes - they just waste their money on beer an strippers anyway.

 

[Meghan54]

You are dead right. We are a democracy, we literally can’t have a communist healthcare system. We do need a national health care system like, uhm, Medicare. Except, for everyone and hopefully even better.

Just stop listening to the wealthy corporations and individuals who run propaganda against such a beneficial system because it will cost them some money. Can’t be blowing money on average Joes - they just waste their money on beer an strippers anyway.

Frankly, the argument he has yet to make but I'm willing to bet he's just itching to make it is: "I don't want my tax money paying for their health care!" Always hear that, at one point or another. Usually as a last resort retort.

 

[Matt390]

Everyone blaming private insurance when this is the government's fault. Y'all want to know why emergency rooms are so expensive? They have to pay for government mandated free loaders. Nixon signed a law mandating that ERs treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

 

[Pohemi]

Just /ignore @killster1 he's nothing but a troll

 

[MrSquished]

Everyone blaming private insurance when this is the government's fault. Y'all want to know why emergency rooms are so expensive? They have to pay for government mandated free loaders. Nixon signed a law mandating that ERs treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

You are like halfway towards being a Nazi, as in about as good of a person as a Nazi was.

 

[esquared]

I wasn't insulting you, I was merely describing your perception of health care in this country.

And yes, when they can't get (afford) timely treatment or management for cancer, they often end up in the ER at some point.

I didn't even want to reply to the ignorant asshat but I will agree with you. My cousin had liver cancer that he fought for 4+ years. He took more rounds of chemo than most people could handle. It ended up damaging/weakening his blood vessels as he was leaking blood via a vein or artery in his abdomen.
He had to go to emergency as he was literally shitting blood. They used this device they put down his throat to cauterize the open wound to stop the bleeding. Over those last two years he went to the emergency probably six times just for that, which included multiple units of blood.
This would work for a couple three months until it happened again and again.

 

[MtnMan]

Everyone blaming private insurance when this is the government's fault. Y'all want to know why emergency rooms are so expensive? They have to pay for government mandated free loaders. Nixon signed a law mandating that ERs treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

And who do you think fights universal healthcare for all the hardest. How many millions do they pour into campaign funds of politicians that will ensure they continue to rake in billions on the backs of the sick.

The local non-profit system was purchased by a for-profit corporation in 2019. Care has dropped, services are being cut or eliminated, doctors and nurses are leaving by the hundreds, and guess what HCA Healthcare, the company that bought the hospital system has made billions during the pandemic, $3.8 Billion to be exact, while spending $2.4 million lobbying in Washington in 2020.

And if everyone had healthcare, ER visits would not be so damn expensive, just like in every other industrial nation on the fucking planet.

 

[MrSquished]

I didn't even want to reply to the ignorant asshat but I will agree with you. My cousin had liver cancer that he fought for 4+ years. He took more rounds of chemo than most people could handle. It ended up damaging/weakening his blood vessels as he was leaking blood via a vein or artery in his abdomen.
He had to go to emergency as he was literally shitting blood. They used this device they put down his throat to cauterize the open wound to stop the bleeding. Over those last two years he went to the emergency probably six times just for that, which included multiple units of blood.
This would work for a couple three months until it happened again and again.

according to our resident wanna be Nazi, @Matt390, they should have checked his credit first.

 

[nickqt]

Everyone blaming private insurance when this is the government's fault. Y'all want to know why emergency rooms are so expensive? They have to pay for government mandated free loaders. Nixon signed a law mandating that ERs treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

First off, you're thinking of Reagan and EMTALA.

Second, the reason it's so expensive is because if you don't have private insurance, those costs get eaten by the hospitals, which get it back in part by charging everyone with insurance more, etc.

Any functioning society in 2021 would have universal health care. We don't live in a functioning society (look the fuck around) so here we are with the worst aspects of any "healthcare systems".

All because private healthcare is a massive source of profits for people who profit by sitting back and letting Americans suffer and die.

 

[killster1]

First off, you're thinking of Reagan and EMTALA.

Second, the reason it's so expensive is because if you don't have private insurance, those costs get eaten by the hospitals, which get it back in part by charging everyone with insurance more, etc.

Any functioning society in 2021 would have universal health care. We don't live in a functioning society (look the fuck around) so here we are with the worst aspects of any "healthcare systems".

All because private healthcare is a massive source of profits for people who profit by sitting back and letting Americans suffer and die.

so which country would you say is doing it the correct way?

 

[Matt390]

And who do you think fights universal healthcare for all the hardest. How many millions do they pour into campaign funds of politicians that will ensure they continue to rake in billions on the backs of the sick.

The local non-profit system was purchased by a for-profit corporation in 2019. Care has dropped, services are being cut or eliminated, doctors and nurses are leaving by the hundreds, and guess what HCA Healthcare, the company that bought the hospital system has made billions during the pandemic, $3.8 Billion to be exact, while spending $2.4 million lobbying in Washington in 2020.

And if everyone had healthcare, ER visits would not be so damn expensive, just like in every other industrial nation on the fucking planet.

How do you buy a non-profit?

 

[Meghan54]

How do you buy a non-profit?

Are you really this stupid? Really? As in you’re too g’damn stupid to have ever seen/heard about or even too f’n stupid to use your mind and imagine a scenario by which a nonprofit hospital, running deficits, sells itself to a private health care corp with the “promise” from said private co. to keep the purchased hosp. open?

As in a local county hosp can no longer be supported by the county itself, and that’d be a nonprofit hosp, btw, being a county-owned/funded entity, and is either sold or closed.

But u too dumb to even be able to conceptualize selling a nonprofit institution

 

[TheVrolok]

so here we are with the worst aspects of any "healthcare systems".

Only if you care about people. If you're a business person and care about making piles of money, in many Healthcare sectors it's nothing but #winning.

To your point, we have a system getting the result it has been designed to provide. Widely variable, and on average, in context, pretty shitty care for many many many vulnerable people.

 

[Zorba]

That's the part that really irritates me. It's not like the monthly premiums we pay are low. From worldwide perspective, we're paying crazy monthly premiums. Yet, we're getting major shaft in coverage. My deductible is like $12k a year and something like 35-40% co-pay. Something ridiculous like that. Like I said, I just keep it as catastrophic coverage. I don't really use it at all. I've been trained all my life to avoid the ER and avoid hospitals unless I'm dying because I always had the fear I couldn't afford it. That's no longer the case, but I still exercise the same fear. I've been programmed by the system to not seek medical care in this country.

I have good insurance and income. But a couple years ago in Kansas City my daughter busted her chin at a playground, we were literally down the block from the children's hospital, ended up driving 15 miles to the sub burbs to get her stitches at a pediatric minor emergency, after trying multiple others that would do stitches on the weekend.

Didn't want to deal with the risk of getting a multi thousand dollar bill from the ER.

 

[Zorba]

you know this first hand about people going to the ER for pain caused by cancer, or perhaps you are just making it up?

Typically right winger, "If I haven't personally seen it, it doesn't happen."

Here's a hint, the majority (outside of elective surgery) of people get admitted to the hospital via the ER. Even when my wife's water broke, we had to go to the pregnancy triage before being admitted to the hospital.

I'm guessing the random person on Facebook you knew with cancer just didn't post about their time in the ER.

 

[Muse]

you know this first hand about people going to the ER for pain caused by cancer, or perhaps you are just making it up?

People go to the ER when they have unbearable conditions and can't afford anything else. They show up in the waiting room. That's America. Don't you know this? You'd do it too.

Didn't you grow up in Oakland or something?

The Film — The Waiting Room

www.whatruwaitingfor.com

The Waiting Room (2012 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Code Black (documentary) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[killster1]

People go to the ER when they have unbearable conditions and can't afford anything else. That's America. Don't you know this? You'd do it too.

how do you know what i would do? if i cant afford to go to a clinic then the ER is not the choice for me. The ER is for emergencies the whole issue is when people go to the ER for dr's notes for work or for anxiety etc. This thread topic is going to the ER for NON emergencies and everyone has turned it into America should be free healthcare because lower class deserve care too!

 

[ch33zw1z]

how do you know what i would do? if i cant afford to go to a clinic then the ER is not the choice for me. The ER is for emergencies the whole issue is when people go to the ER for dr's notes for work or for anxiety etc.

You may think that, but the implications of such a decision by a health insurer should be discussed. My experience with UH was not that good, but it was long ago. The "whole issue" here is whether or not an insurer should be allowed to deny an ER visit at all, and what grounds they can do so

This thread topic is going to the ER for NON emergencies and everyone has turned it into America should be free healthcare because lower class deserve care too!

Um, no. This thread is about an insurer saying that they reserve the right to deny coverage for anything they deem not an emergency, doesn't have to be a non emergency.

And as pointed out, it's the people in the middle that get screwed the most. Not the lower class or the wealthy, it's the middle class / upper middle class that get reamed.

Look at ponyo's example of his coverage, sounds awful. He and I may disagree on things, but I think we'd both agree that his cost for insurance and care is pretty steep. Personally, I don't think health care or insurance should cost that much. That's the current systems design though.