My personal experience with the two different health cares in America

[Aptastik]

I know my low post count here will probably get me discredited by many here, but I've been a lurker since 03, and a member since 07, and I just wanted to share my personal experience with the two different health cares in America that occurred to me over the past two days.

On Tuesday morning, amid a move to Washington, DC, I slipped on ice and injured my ankle. I toughed it out and made the trip down amid the pain. It was really bothering me and the next morning, I relented and called my insurance company to ask for advice on where to go and what was covered, etc. because I've never been admitted to a hospital before and have never used this insurance before. I'm on my school's health insurance plan which they require if you don't have other insurance and it's pretty bare bones.

The insurance agent basically tells me I have two options. I can go to the ER, pay a $100 copay plus 20% of the total ER bill, or I can go to a walk-in center and pay a $25 copay. Well, being a student, with a very limited income and facing a pricey move to a pricey real estate market, I opted to just to the walk-in.

It was a roach motel. A box where I sat and waited as incompetent nurses fumbled about and talked among themselves as patients waited to be seen. It took 2 hours just to get into the back room, where I waited another hour to see a nurse, and then another hour to get an Xray. Of course, inbetween that time, the doctor stopped in briefly and ordered an xray, but the nurse came in a half hour later and started just wrapping me up in an ace bandage, not even a splint. I finally get the Xray administered and two nurses struggle to put the splint on me and put me on crutches and push me out the door.

Fast forward to earlier today. I'm sitting icing my ankle with my leg elevated and i see something weird. My foot is tremendously swollen. It looks like a balloon. I go to the ER because I know something is wrong and at this point I'm willing to spend the money to see what is. I see a doctor within a half hour and he tells me the splint was too tight and wasn't allowing my veins to bring the blood out my foot. Within the course of an hour I was evaluated, they put on a new splint and I was out the door. I even had a TV to watch as I waited for the PA.

It was two totally different experiences. One affordable, the other not. I don't really know where I stand in the health care debate, and I don't want to drag that into this. I just wanted to share with those interested my back-to-back experience of the two different types of emergency care offered in this country, and my reassurance that something must be done to close this gap.

[HipChick]

1. First..

Welcome to DU and Washington DC
Second - sorry you slipped on the ice
Third - You're experience mirrors what I have went thru - I was having a severe loss of blood - the walk-in place told me they did not have the right equipment to test to see if I was anemic..duh..I was passing out all over the place...I ended up at ER anyway,

[Suich]

2. Interesting...thanks for posting!

K & R!

:hi:

[niyad]

3. k and r--and thank you for posting this

[napi21]

4. Welcome to DU! It depends a lot on where you are, what time of the day & luck!

I live in Ga. and have had the same ins. for a LONG TIME. I never tried a walk in although I would if I could have. Unfortunately, our walk-ins are not open late at night or o weekends, so I had no choice but to go to the ER.

1st time I fell at about 1:00 AM on a Sat.and although I thought I had just sprained my ankle and would just rest on the sofa and it would be better in the AM, I was wrong! By morning, my foot was swollen twice it's normal size and hurt like heck, so my hubby took me to the ER. We arrived at about 9:30 AM. There was nobody in the waiting room and I was taken right in. They took my info, then back to a cubical. Within 5 mins. they did an x-ray and 10 mins after that, a Doc. came and said it's broken. They put a temp. cast on it & gave me the name & phone # of an ortho Doc. and we left. The whole thing took less than 1 hr.

@nd time about 5 years later a similar thing happened only this time it was my knee and the other leg. Went to the ER at 7PM. on a Sat. There were well over 40 people there! We waited over 3 hrs. in the waiting room, then another 1 hr. in a cubical, then an x-ray etc. This time the whole thing took almost 6 hrs!

I don't think it had anything to do with ins. it was time of day & # of people in the ER at the time!

[Aptastik]

7. The issue isn't only with the time

Luckily, there were only 2 people ahead of me in the ER as it was late on Christmas Eve. However, there were only 2 people ahead of me at the walk-in as well. There were actually 3 nurses at the walk-in and only 2 at the ER. It was more the incompetence of the nurses and the inability to receive proper medical care.

[necso]

5. Interesting datapoint.

I've read similar stories before.

I think that such a two (multiple) tier system may be the trend. And not only for (some) emergency care, but for people requiring other care who don't have regular physicians.

Best wishes.

[Warpy]

6. Walk in clinics are great for coughs and colds

but for any potential fracture you really need an ER. If you're having trouble breathing or if you have the symptoms of a heart attack, you need an ER. Obviously, if you've just been in a car accident or been shot or stabbed, you need an ER. If, like me, you have a temperature of 103.6 and are going into shock, it's definitely time for an ER.

Most other problems can be dealt with very nicely by the cheap place.

Knowing what place to go to first is half the battle.

Sorry about your ankle.

[dipsydoodle]

8. The tragedy of course

is that you live in a country which is a complete fucking joke when it comes to healthcare.

In the USA you get what you pay for whilst in Europe we get what we need.