That’s my MIL. She’s still around and it’s still a’swingin’… and we still make fun of her for it. What the Ever Lovin’ Fuck. I mean, christ…usually when something falls out from your abdominal cavity and STAYS out, you name it.
Sorry, still not buying it. If you work in customer service, you get awful damned tired of customers after a while (for me, about five minutes), but you’re still not allowed to yell at them. A frontline job in healthcare requires a certain amount of compassion, and less than that is someone not doing a proper job.
I don’t mean to hijack your thread, Ruffian. I’ll take it to a new thread if you’d like.
There can be a fine line between matter of fact and dismissive. IMO, the seizure sufferer up thread had a dismissive ER experience. The OP did not.
As squiky as it seems, a bit of thought will lead to the conclusion–yes, this does qualify as an emergency (or at least a matter of some urgency), but it is not life threatening. Dramatics aside (and I’m not blaming the OP for freaking out-it’s a freaky thing), I think the OP knew that she was not in danger of losing her life. I would have gone to the ER as well if that had happened to me. Most likely she waited awhile as well before she was seen. True emergencies were the priority.
I fault the insurance company (surely they don’t think that someone could handle this on their own?) I once got a letter of pre-cert from an ins co–“the medical procedure scheduled to take place on May 10 has been approved.” That “procedure” was a spontaneous vaginal delivery of my son. He came on May 9. We actually worried that the ins co wouldn’t pay, since the date was different…ins companies suck.
What I don’t blame or fault the ER staff for is their approach to the problem. Are we supposed to cry out and lament when someone comes in with a problem they have no knowledge of? Nothing else would get done! ER is in an unenviable position-it is there for true emergencies, but since our health care system sucks (this denial of claim is just one small example), the poor and the uninsured use it as their clinic. ERs don’t have a choice in their clientele, and they cannot turn away people. We have no idea what else was happening in that ER at that time.
I believe in competent, polite treatment. But it is too much to expect the ER staff to enter in to the pt’s feelings regarding their state of health. You mentioned compassion–what exactly did you have in mind? She was appropriately treated and released. We don’t know how the nurses or other personnel treated her. We can assume that she is not the only woman to ever have had this condition. Alot of folks actually take comfort that their condition, which seems so alien to them, is actually quite common. Then again, there are those who WANT to be unique and are upset to be told that we see X often.
Most health care folks do practice with compassion–it’s just that the definition of that is a bit different for everyone. I’ve had pts who have gotten angry because I haven’t apologized for their being ill–IOW, I don’t share their outrage at being sick. (this does not refer to the OP)–they want to hear things like, “I am so sorry you’re here. You don’t deserve to be sick. How awful that this is happening to you.” This is non-productive for the health care person.
We will help you regain as much prior function as you can and you’ll maybe even no longer be sick, but commiserating with the pt is one thing we don’t do. We show compassion in other ways. Should the ER doc have been dismissive? No. Maybe it would have been better or more ideal if s/he had shown more sensitivity-who knows? The OP doesn’t seem fussed about the ER doc-her complaint is with the insurance company.
The issue is with the insurance company and whoever at the hospital coded this event as a non-emergency. They are the clueless ones.
I told my husband about this thread, and he experienced a Whole Body Shudder. He turned green. He told me that if my bladder EVER fell out of its normal place, he’s rushing me to the ER and screaming until I’m fixed.
Obviously, he has Issues about the whole business.