E really is for emergency, more hospitals say | Florida Times-Union | 11.30.06
In mid-November, Orange Park Medical Center became the second Northeast Florida emergency room in recent months to ask the least sick of its patients to turn elsewhere for care or face a $100 fee.
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“There really is a national push to get ERs back to their original intent[.]“
Where does your problem fall?
- Category 1: the patient needs to be seen immediately; e.g., a heart attack or profound injuries from an accident.
- Category 2: strong potential for emergency; doctors need to fully examine the patient; e.g., could be serious abdominal or chest pain.
- Category 3: potential emergency; the situation could develop into a full-fledged emergency; e.g., could be abdominal or chest pain, high fever or a major cut.
- Category 4: not an emergency; these patients have satisfactory temperatures and blood pressure;they don’t immediately need any tests or labs and don’t need an X-ray; e.g., include dental problems, colds and minor injuries.
- Category 5: referred elsewhere for treatment.
10 Reasons
- Emergency Medicine has been a willing victim of its own success.
- Emergency Medicine has been all too willing to cover for the deficiencies in the availability of primary care (in terms of numbers and time).
- Emergency Medicine is not an essential service, but a convenient service.
- Emergency Medicine should be no more a marketing tool for a hospital then a police or fire department is for a city.
- Emergency Medicine is a primary specialty, not primary care.
- Triage is really about meeting needs, not the toll booth on the way to the pharmacy.
- The internet is only a little bit better then tea leaves in its ability to diagnosis health problem, only because you don’t have to boil the water.
- “Next” is not a guarantee.
- We want a safety net, not a circus tent.
- “Just go to the ER” is not a national health policy.
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Flea
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By coincidence, I just blogged about some "typical" day past or present in a level I trauma center ED. May bring laughs, groans or help with constipation - you be the judge!
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