Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The E.R.'s Death Throes (or how the carrot was tossed and the stick made bigger)

Due to liability concerns a few of the ER's near me, and no doubt, many across the country, are opening "ER Aftercare Clinics". Reason? Giving away more free care is cheaper than paying for a liability loss if a test ordered in the ER, such as an outpatient MRI, is either not done in a timely fashion, or done, and the patient does not follow up to get and act on abnormal results. Liability rests with the E.R. physician. Hmmm.

Ultimately the ER docs will order fewer tests and go to the military model which is, 'you are not dying, follow up on you own, take some tylenol'. Anybody else seen this latest evolution in absurdist comedy?
Posted by 911DOC at Wednesday, January 19, 2011

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:43 AM, January 20, 2011

    Hey 6-7, not sure what Military model your talkn' bout...
    The Navy was more like, "You have an ACL tear, I'll put you on the schedule behind the other 500 ACL tears, and since we only do 5/week, we'll do yours in 2 years"
    Thats not fair, they did more like 2/week.
    Unless you were the family of someone who worked at the Uzbekistan Consulate, in fact some weeks seems all they operated on was furry furiners...
    Then there was the time I had to drive a patient with a Kidney Stone 60 miles to the Navy Hospital IN MY OWN EFFIN CAR, cause the Base Ambulances werent allowed to leave the Base. Hung his Morphine Drip on the coat hanger peg, actually, that was broken, so he had to hold it up.
    Which wasnt as bad as the tragic-comedy of sending patients with fractures 5 miles to the Main Clinic for an X-ray, which the patient had to bring 5 miles back to the BAS to be read, then drive 10 miles to the Naval Hospital to be casted, cause we didn't have casts, or crutches...
    But hey, at least you didn't have to deal with Homos, except when we'd deploy to Air Force bases...

    Frank "14-0" Drackman

    ReplyDelete
  2. MS11:04 PM, January 20, 2011

    Frank, 911,

    I have to make the call in the next few days of whether or not to go back into the Navy as a doc. I'm a med student now, was a sub guy. I want E-med.

    So, what do you think? For the aspiring ER doc..Navy or not?

    Thanks,
    MS1

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oldfart1:44 PM, January 20, 2011

    NAVY!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1:52 PM, January 20, 2011

    MS1,
    Two Words
    ARE YOU EFFING CRAZY?!?!?!
    OK, Four.
    I know, some people enjoy really bizarre twisted things like autoerotic asphyxiation, S&M, SEC Basketball.
    Actually, I'd prefer the Autoerotic Asphyxiation to watching Auburn Basketball...
    And now thanks to his Mulatto-ness(Peace be upon Him)ending DADT you'll have to treat the Ho-Moes just like they were normal.
    And as I'm sure you know, the Navy's gotta LOT of closets.
    So if you enjoy wearing polyester and working with seamen, go right ahead, I'll stick with the Michael Hutchence approach.

    Frank

    ReplyDelete

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