Why is emergency medicine different than police, fire, and military?

While we're on the subject of medical attention I will pass on something that I learned first hand three weeks ago. How many of you know what a TIA (transient Ischemic Attack) is? It's a very small stroke. I now know how it feels. For me it came on as I was talking to a couple of friends in this coffee shop that I visit every morning. I opened my mouth to say something and my mouth felt like it was kind of frozen and I had to force the words to come out. They were slurred. I knew immediately what was happening and immediately got up and walked to a sofa that was close by. The husband of the shop owner is a Medical Tech and came right to the shop and checked me out.

All responses were good and by that time I was only feeling a bit dizzy. (which is normal) He drove me to my Doctor's office where I got an ekg and more tests with instructions that if I felt weird the next morning to call him. I did. He sent me to a local ER where I got a CT scan, an EKG, and blood work. Four days later I had an MRI and a doppler on the major vessels in my neck. Yep, I had a small stroke that did very little damage but still, a damn stroke. WTF! I'm too young for this BS. Well, maybe not.

I said all this to say the following: I know it's a pain in the ass to go to the Doctor, much less a damn ER, but I can sure as hell tell you that it's something that you had better accept to maintain your life. If not for my friend being there and insisting on taking me to the Doctor I would most likely would not have gone since I was feeling pretty much ok within 15 minutes after the event.
Yes, I'm one of those hardheaded mofos that will not go to the Doctor unless my spleen is hanging down by my knee. That attitude has now changed.

 

Yeah, sure. Those are the ONLY public welfare services.

Maybe they should just have medical academies like fire and police academies. After all, you can train a doc in the same amount of time, right?

 

The doctor is only a small piece of the puzzle, but that is actually an issue. Medical schools have been operating at max enrollment for decades and can't keep up.

 

@Orvis good on you for not being too hard headed to get checked out. Years ago, I think I was 10 or 11, I was out late at night with my papaw and one of his buddies on a fox hunt. He told us about a spell he had that day while he was working on his chicken coupes. He got dizzy and started gradually losing his vision until he was completely blind. After he sat still for a few minutes his vision returned and everything seemed normal. He wouldn't go get checked and made me promise not to tell my mamaw. Didn't want to worry her. The next day he had a massive stroke.
He never recovered from it. His left side was partially paralyzed to the point that he could barely walk to the bathroom or kitchen with his cane, so he spent most of the rest of his life in his bed. He hung on for about 18 years, steadily going downhill the whole time. Seeing what his life was like all those years, I wish I would have screamed to anyone who would listen to make him go get checked out. I'd hate for anyone to go through what he did, or what my mamaw did caring for him, because someone ignored a clear warning that something is wrong.

 

Small piece. That's funny. You also might want to do a bit of research on Med schools, er and trauma docs, etc. your argument is on very shaky ground.

 

I've done plenty of research on it, and my ground is perfectly stable. While a doctor does have to order most things, the actual billable work is almost entirely done by other people.

And honestly, most doctors are complete hacks just going through the motions so they get paid. It's a big part of the reason the system is so screwed up. A patient may only get five to ten minutes with them to discuss a huge problem they've been having for years. It all comes back to the money. Administrators have ordered that the doctor must see X number of patients per day as part of their pay structure. It's sickening.

But that's not the point of this discussion. Yes, there are other public welfare services, but my list of examples was never intended to be all inclusive. Please feel free to add other services that fit the same criteria of being provided in an emergency setting where there is no opportunity to choose what type/level of service is rendered or how much that service will cost. You'll only strength my argument.

 

Basic health maintenance rarely requires a full MD. PAs, Nurse Practitioners, RNs and others trained in the basics could provide the overwhelming bulk of health care anywhere. Schools may be at capacity, but WTF is preventing the Universities from increasing enrollment other than a desire to keep salaries inflated? Med school doesn't have to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (nor does any other degree for that matter)

 

It's been a while since I was involved, but it had something to do with certification. But still, there is no reason for the cost.

 

Certification exists for two reasons. One is it does set minimum standards - this part is good. The second is to keep rewards for the service high - good for the practitioner, not so much for the consumer.

 

What I meant that whatever certifying body oversees them has set an artificial limit, not the schools themselves.

 

I wasn't restricting my comment to the provider level. Same thing is true for the governing level. Competition has been managed for decades. I remember having to go through the certificate of need process for a developer that wanted to operate a nursing home back in the late 70s. Even with waiting lists at local establishments, it took 2 years to prove that it was needed.

 

Emergency response is NOT basic heath service.

This entire discussion is idiotic.

 

Oh, and news flash. There are these jobs called paramedics. They are typically in the fire department. However, its expensive to maintain so not all communities can afford it.

I guess the answer is raise taxes again right?

[emoji38]

 

Where do paramedics take you? To the hospital?

 

I'm assuming you're occupation is tied to the system. You're biased because your livelihood depends on this fucked up game the entire healthcare industry plays with people's lives.

 

I see. Anything that might eventually involve a hospital must be basic health services.

Obviously you're one of the single payer government health insurance fans. There are countries you can move to. You know, where vets or internal medicine docs can do brain surgery.

 

Your assumption is as flawed as your argument. I don't have the slightest thing to do with the system. Never did. I only had to unfortunately use government health care in the past. Try again. Harder.

 

And I'm pretty sure that we can all agree on the whole "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" thing, right? When your options are "accept this care I'm providing at whatever cost or die", how can the healthcare not be considered a right?

 

Anything that's out of your control as a consumer. Want bigger tits? Pay up. Kid gets cancer, have a car wreck, break a leg, etc, it's covered.