My hospital(ist) rant

[kluurs]

Back in the day (45 years ago), I worked for the National Cancer Institute. My position there let me know a lot about the various hospitals in the state. There were two where we just heard stories that meant we'd never let any family member go there. We had a staffer who lived near #2 - and would come in with horror stories.

Fast forward a couple of decades and my FIL was having a cardiac event, and MIL decides to drive him to #2. My spouse says "NO!!!" - take him to #1 - a major trauma center. But...it's easier to park at #2 - and "don't argue with me!" Get there - and while they didn't kill him, they came close. Fortunately, out-of-state BIL is a pathologist and called to say "get him the F out of #2" - so, he got transferred - went into arrest at #1 - but was successfully cared for - and lived 15+ more years.

Driving by #2 hospital a while back and noting the new Major Hospital Medical Center on the sign, I was wondering if this meant hope for hospital #2.

We had a B- kind of hospital in my town which become affiliated with a different Major Medical Center a while back - and has improved dramatically - to maybe an A-. I thought, well - maybe this means #2 may have improved. Based on George's experience, clearly, the 45 year reputation remains. If you get shot by a drive by while standing on the steps of that hospital, might be worth your while to Uber over to Hospital #1.

[Doctor Phibes]

These sound like the horror stories you occasionally hear about British hospitals, which is normally blamed on the NHS being hopeless. My own personal experience with NHS urgent care was that it wasn't that bad at all (non-urgent care is a somewhat different matter, with waiting lists going back to the time of the dinosaurs), so maybe that is more hospital based as well.

[George K]

Nurse called at noon, "Can you do a 2:40 appointment?"

"Sure! This is a telemedicine visit, right?"

"Er, no. You can't come in?

"Nah, too much of a trip and wait in the waiting room."

"No worries. 2:40 telemedicine it is."

Doc called about 40 min late (we would have been sitting in a waiting room all that time). Pleasant conversation, and she called in the scripts.

Easy.

She said that hospital #2 has a rep for being "sloppy."

[Jolly]

Still got your license?

[George K]

@Jolly said in My hospital(ist) rant:

Still got your license?

Nope.

Not worth the expense of renewal, cost of CME, and pharmacies (esp Medicare) frown on prescribing for kin, or anyone with whom I don't have a professional relationship.

[Jolly]

Frown? Unless you're doing controlled substances I don't see why they would care.

Could always do doc-in-a-box a couple of days/week and pay for the expense. You'd be a helluva lot better than any NP could be.

I do keep trying to shove you back in through the EXIT door, don't I?

[George K]

@Jolly said in My hospital(ist) rant:

Could always do doc-in-a-box a couple of days/week and pay for the expense. You'd be a helluva lot better than any NP could be.

I do keep trying to shove you back in through the EXIT door, don't I?

Hard, hard nope.

Doing peds? Ladies with abdominal pain? Earaches? Runny noses?

Nope.

I could do simple ortho (put a cast on) and simple sutures. Nothing else.

[Jolly]

@George-K said in My hospital(ist) rant:

@Jolly said in My hospital(ist) rant:

Could always do doc-in-a-box a couple of days/week and pay for the expense. You'd be a helluva lot better than any NP could be.

I do keep trying to shove you back in through the EXIT door, don't I?

Hard, hard nope.

Doing peds? Ladies with abdominal pain? Earaches? Runny noses?

Nope.

I could do simple ortho (put a cast on) and simple sutures. Nothing else.

Ok, you're hired!

[kluurs]

heh heh... don't look back... There's a reason a lot of people have left the field of battle.

[Jolly]

One of the docs I used to work with, was our ED Director for several years, until he decided he actually wanted a life. He went into the urgent care biz. He does a pretty good job and runs some pretty good numbers, because he:

1. Tries to staff his urgent cares (he has 4 or 5) with docs, if possible. If not, there is at least a couple of docs working at any given time. There is always a doc at his main place.
2. His main urgent care has a Piccolo (great little chemistry machines, can do a full CMP/ liver enzymes/Troponin), a CBC machine with an automated diff, dipstick urinalysis and a bevy of LFT waived testing (flu/covid/strep/mono).
3. His main urgent care also has an Xray and CT machine.
4. Even his smaller shops have CBC, waived LFT, BMP, Troponin and xray capability.

[89th]

@kluurs that is cool you used to work for NCI. I did a bunch of work for them in the 2005-2011 time span when I was working for a research company in Rockville, MD