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a stitch, and time
Jul. 18th, 2007 12:38 amTonight at skating, Kylie fell and cut her chin - about ¾" long, and deep, although it looked more like a scrape when it was still bleeding. Even when it was still bleeding (which wasn't long), she was more upset about cutting short her skating lesson than about cutting her chin.
Three hours at the ER, and six stitches later, we're home. Midnight dinner of bacon and eggs, because the hens have been laying them faster than we've been eating them.
It wasn't an especially busy night at the ER - it wasn't crowded, there weren't any ambulance admissions, just the normal flow of everyday injuries and illnesses. Still, it was over an hour before we were seen by a triage nurse, and sent back to the waiting room. When we finally got into an exam room, it was 45 minutes before the doctor arrived. She was friendly and professional, and didn't rush her work, but it was 11pm, and we just wanted to go home, get dinner, and go to bed.
This isn't a Sicko rant, it's just one experience at a suburban hospital, but you can't help thinking, during the three hours you have to think, that one way to control health care costs is to discourage people from using emergency and urgent-care services, and one way to do that is to make it tedious; it doesn't even have to be unpleasant - the tedium should drive most people off.
Three hours at the ER, and six stitches later, we're home. Midnight dinner of bacon and eggs, because the hens have been laying them faster than we've been eating them.
It wasn't an especially busy night at the ER - it wasn't crowded, there weren't any ambulance admissions, just the normal flow of everyday injuries and illnesses. Still, it was over an hour before we were seen by a triage nurse, and sent back to the waiting room. When we finally got into an exam room, it was 45 minutes before the doctor arrived. She was friendly and professional, and didn't rush her work, but it was 11pm, and we just wanted to go home, get dinner, and go to bed.
This isn't a Sicko rant, it's just one experience at a suburban hospital, but you can't help thinking, during the three hours you have to think, that one way to control health care costs is to discourage people from using emergency and urgent-care services, and one way to do that is to make it tedious; it doesn't even have to be unpleasant - the tedium should drive most people off.
