When you need the services of a hospital emergency room, your need is almost always sudden and unexpected. Far less frequently, people use such facilities for primary health care rather than maintaining a continuing-care relationship with a family doctor. In effect, these people use emergency rooms as their “doctors”.
While emergency rooms have their advantages, such as easy access and not requiring an appointment before being examined and treated, there are also some potential dangers involved. Here are some of the most common problems associated with emergency room treatment:
1) If the emergency room is busy (and they usually are) a patient may have to wait up to several hours before being able to consult a doctor. Call a head to see the wait – you may be able to see your regular doctor sooner.
2) There is the possibility that you won’t even be treated by a doctor. In some cases, emergency room technicians recommend x-rays and perform minor treatment, such as cleaning and bandaging wounds. This can increase the risk of improper or inadequate treatment.
3) Most emergency room treatment does not involve any personal communication, such as a patient usually has with a family doctor or in a hospital. There simply isn’t time in an emergency room environment for a doctor to discuss a medical problem with a patient and get his or her medical history. As a result, the patient’s own participation in his or her medical care is very limited. In an emergency room situation, a patient has almost no say as to what type of treatment he or she will receive.
4) Many emergency rooms, even those that are open 24 hours a day, are often under-staffed. In some cases, new doctors, with little practical experience, moonlight in emergency rooms, meaning the patient does not get the benefit of being treated by an experienced physician.
5) While some ER’s are staffed by board certified emergency physicians, with qualified surgeons, anesthesiologists, cardiologists, and pediatricians on duty, others are not.
6) Because of the often “frantic pace” in emergency rooms, treatment is usually superficial and arranging for needed follow-up care is difficult. Such arrangements are usually left up to the patient.
7) Emergency rooms offer little if any privacy. Patients with all sorts of ailments and injuries may be crowded together. There may be an increased risk of coming into contact with “tainted” blood from open wounds, cuts and/or abrasions.
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