Community Chat

[terrier3]

People use the ER because they have limited alternatives.

The ER/ambulance companies/labs/pharmacies have no incentive to change things. They make a ton of money providing this kind of care to everyone who shows up.

We need family practice neighborhood clinics open 7 days a week and late hours. They need to have labs/pharmacies attached. Anyone can come in for treatment....like the new immediate care facilities that have been opening lately.

As long as ERs and ambulance companies get reimbursed big bucks for people looking for a cheap way to treat a sore throat late at night...costs will continue to rise.

Every time I have posted this...it gets poofed.

[tansy]

Around here every time a good-sized building is empty an urgent-care clinic pops up. The clinics are open in the evenings and on the weekends.

[pinkskates4]

But I thought you said people didn't have transportation - and taking the bus late at night is surely not as easy as calling an ambulance.

What about actually penalizing people who call an ambulance when it is not remotely an emergency?

You act like it's the ambulance companies fault - and yet you would be the first to scream if they refused to respond.

[terrier3]

On 1/3/2014 tansy said: Around here every time a good-sized building is empty an urgent-care clinic pops up. The clinics are open in the evenings and on the weekends.

When they are as lucrative as ER treatment reimbursement, they will meet the needs of neighborhoods, where transportation and weird working hours keep people from regular MD office hours.

Just think of how tough our current system is if you have to rely on bus transportation. First the doctor, then another trip to a lab...then another to the drug store.

Then try doing that at 11 PM when you get out of your shift flipping burgers!

[guatmum]

I think clinics are a good idea. We have many around here and people often use them when they can't get to the doctor because of timing, etc.

As far as penalizing ambulance users, I'd never do that. If you have no one to drive you to the doctor/hospital and you are ready to vomit every 2 minutes, I don't want you trying to drive down the road with me. Possibly the clinics could have drivers for those unable to drive safely themselves.

[terrier3]

On 1/3/2014 Dagna said:

But I thought you said people didn't have transportation - and taking the bus late at night is surely not as easy as calling an ambulance.

What about actually penalizing people who call an ambulance when it is not remotely an emergency?

You act like it's the ambulance companies fault - and yet you would be the first to scream if they refused to respond.

What about not reimbursing the ambulance company for transporting people with sore throats?

That will end that misuse immediately...

Until they stop making big bucks from transporting people with minor issues...it will continue.

[nun ya]

We have 2 clinics here, but the hrs are limited. Which leaves the emergency room the only other option for some.

Ambulance price is ridiculous. We have now become yearly members of the local ambulance service, they forgive whatever amount the insurance won't pay. Learned this the hard way, by ambulance to the hospital 1 mile away was $800.

[pinkskates4]

On 1/3/2014 guatmum said:

I think clinics are a good idea. We have many around here and people often use them when they can't get to the doctor because of timing, etc.

As far as penalizing ambulance users, I'd never do that. If you have no one to drive you to the doctor/hospital and you are ready to vomit every 2 minutes, I don't want you trying to drive down the road with me. Possibly the clinics could have drivers for those unable to drive safely themselves.

OP specifically mentioned a sore throat. You seriously think this requires an ambulance?

[terrier3]

On 1/3/2014 guatmum said:

I think clinics are a good idea. We have many around here and people often use them when they can't get to the doctor because of timing, etc.

As far as penalizing ambulance users, I'd never do that. If you have no one to drive you to the doctor/hospital and you are ready to vomit every 2 minutes, I don't want you trying to drive down the road with me. Possibly the clinics could have drivers for those unable to drive safely themselves.

I have noticed that a lot of these immediate care places are now providing vans....great idea and much less costly.

[SoX]

I don't want to be the one responsible for having this thread disappear like the other two, but let's just wait for another Harvard/MIT study to give us an alternative to a mindset of those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

This is a learned behavior and it will take more than a study to convince this segment of society to change their ways.