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I use urgent care when my doctor can't see me soon enough. But I just got a same day appointment with my doc today, so it's only occasional.
I went to the ER a couple of months ago. I had a complex problem that I knew would need multiple tests, and there was some urgency. If I went to my PCP or specialist, I'd have to make an appointment to see him, then he'd order tests, and several days would go by. Six hours in the ER got me all the tests and a solid diagnosis.
Then I called the specialist, and he ordered up what was needed without my seeing him at all.
Years ago I went to St Mary's in Rochester, MN with my blood pressure through the roof and sat for eight hours while nearly everyone who came through the door took precedence for their gang fights, overdoses and gunshots. It made the wait feel like a dangerous spot to be. Very loud and chaotic and full of families, children and friends, most upset.
After six hours I asked for a glass of orange juice because my blood sugar was dropping and they refused me.
That was a weird fluke. Wonder if it's always like that.
Staff seemed totally burnt out and demoralized. It's one thing I speak up about whenever I have a chance to talk to someone with the power to make change. A medical facility is only as good as the care they take of their staff.
Urgent care only exists because our inadequate medical system has left us with insufficient affordable doctors. And did you know that urgent care centers can differ vastly, and some don't even necessarily have an MD on the premises?
Just What the (Urgent Care) Doctor Ordered
If you live in the United States, you’ve most likely experienced the glacial pace of getting medical treatment. It can take weeks to see a primary care doctor, and an emergency room visit can set you back many hours.
But why is it so slow? Doctors are treating more patients than they did previously, says Dr. Ari Friedman, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. With primary care doctors overburdened, navigating the current health care system can feel overwhelming for patients. That’s one reason urgent care centers are on the rise. https://dnyuz.com/2023/11/17/just-wh...octor-ordered/
Where are you located? I have no problem getting to see a doctor if it is a urgent but not emergency room urgent. I am in the Daytona Beach area. Never had an issue in South Carolina either. If my doctor wants me to see a specialist (like for a colonoscopy) they are pretty much calling me the same day or at the latest the next to schedule. The problem with emergency rooms is people who use it like a doctor visit. Got a bad cold or the flu, go to the emergency room instead of waiting until the next morning to call your doctor who may just go and prescribe you something or have you come in.
Who on earth needs "weeks" to see the PCP? I can get in next day, most cases. If not, time to switch PCP.
Emergency room sets you back "many hours?" Uh - not if it's an emergency, it doesn't. But if you're one of the many "non" emergency emergencies then you will (quite rightly) wait inline behind the actual life or death emergencies. If you think it's "understaffing" - perhaps - but no matter how many doctors work there, you will wait. No doctor is sitting idle when you arrive, otherwise, he'd be at home.
Who on earth needs "weeks" to see the PCP? I can get in next day, most cases. If not, time to switch PCP.
Emergency room sets you back "many hours?" Uh - not if it's an emergency, it doesn't. But if you're one of the many "non" emergency emergencies then you will (quite rightly) wait inline behind the actual life or death emergencies. If you think it's "understaffing" - perhaps - but no matter how many doctors work there, you will wait. No doctor is sitting idle when you arrive, otherwise, he'd be at home.
Premise of the OP is unrealistic.
It depends on what's wrong.
I have a prescription that requires me to get bloodwork once a year, and the doctor has to check the bloodwork and speak with me personally before he has his office fax the Rx to the pharmacy. That means I have to coordinate the bloodwork between 4 business days and 10 business days, prior to the doctor's appointment. If I go too soon, the Dr. won't have the bloodwork information. If I go too late, my blood levels could have changed. We do this during my annual "wellness checkup," and he is typically booked 5-6 months in advance for that length of a time slot (45 minutes).
Some emergencies take priority over other emergencies. If someone is coughing up a lot of phlegm, having trouble breathing but still ABLE to breathe on their own, that'll take a back seat to someone who's coughing up blood. And then the person who got shot gets brought in, and that wet-cough-guy waits some more. Then the girl with her femur cracked and sticking out of her skin is rolled in from the ambulance, and the cough guy waits some more. The cough guy might very well have an infectious disease, and possibly be in the starting stages of dying from pneumonia. But as long as he's able to breathe on his own, he's staying put until someone can get the OTHER emergencies dealt with.
His is still an emergency. The "trouble breathing" part makes it one.
There is a niche urgent care centers provide that hasn't been mentioned. Needing timely attention for a non-life threatening problem while away from home base where you probably have an established relationship with a PCP/clinic. I've used urgent care centers a few times (stitching wounds, immobilizing an injury) primarily because home and my PCP were a very looong way away and didn't seem to warrant an ER overwhelmed with true emergencies.
As for waiting weeks to be seen by a PCP for a more urgent problem, I've never experienced that. They've all had at least one assistant or nurse practitioner on staff who could triage, treat, shuffle a schedule, fire a prescription to a pharmacy in a timely manner.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-01-2024 at 03:29 PM..
Primary care doctors are overburdened because high school kids are being indoctrinated into believing that the medical profession is untrustworthy. What kind of high school kid would WANT to go to college and become a doctor?
Because of immigration policy, many qualified, excellent physicians from other countries can't - or refuse - to work in the USA as many once did. And many excellent college candidates who want to go into medicine in the USA, are being rejected because of the country they came from.
there are many reasons for the shortage of docs, it's much more complicated than this.
Actually the real problem is the AMA where it limits the number of doctors entering the field. Many qualified candidates get let out in the cold!
The AMA does not have any say in how many doctors we have. Congress does that by limiting the number of residency slots available. Medical schools cannot graduate people if there are no residencies for them.
A bill passed last year increased the number for the first time in 20 years.
Actually the real problem is the AMA where it limits the number of doctors entering the field. Many qualified candidates get let out in the cold!
Then, because of money, most want to go into specialized care which almost certainly means an Urban setting.
Bless the doctors coming in from other countries, without them we would REALLY be in trouble!
Just a note, I see no movement with HS kids about doctors being untrustworthy, no clue where that idea came from!
That’s right: the medical field is the one to which the most basic capitalist power of supply and demand doesn’t apply for some reason.
Make more doctors! The demand is already there.
The only explanation is that we don’t have that capitalism anymore - we are in a stage of monopolies, oligarchy, parasitism of bureaucracy..
Protecting the earnings of the few on one hand, usurping the power over the remaining doctors by making them corporate employees under the burden of those bureaucratic profiteers: no way out?
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