General Medical issues thread

[Pushka]

Ive never heard of it being called Barouche but a quick google search does refer to trolleys = gurney = barouches
Maybe be a South Australian thing? They do speak differently over there...

well there you go. I’m not going crazy after all. We speak correct English in SA. Even the Americans onboard had no idea where we came from by accent.

What is the difference between a stretcher, patient trolley and barouche?

Learn the difference between each terminology.

www.medicalsearch.com.au

“In South Australia and some parts of the USA, the product is regularly referred to as Barouche. The meaning of this is ‘a 4 wheeled carriage’.

 

[prozac]

Example #1 Walked in and eventually out of emergency with a lacerated hand , hordes lined the hallways , Triage nurse said she had prioritised me but my call (after a couple of hours) was that I lacked the patience , would survive overnight and have the gp check it out the next day.
Example #2 Presented to Emergency/triage with elevated BP.. was immediately assessed and admitted..the process took minutes...
IMo they do a pretty good job...

Ditto for me.
#1 Lacerated hand around 12 months ago. Ended up going home and putting band aids all over it.
#2 April this year on drron's advice attended and barely stopped at any point. Maybe 100 people waiting. First stop at NBH is essentially reception who waved me straight through with a ticket to the "red zone" seats. I sat down and was immediately got back up and sent straight into ED.

 

[RooFlyer]

Chest pain; deteriorating infected spider bite; recurrence of severe pain after hernia op. Three visits to Private Hospital ER and never more than 5 min wait to get inside; then no more than 10 min wait to see doctor. Had surgery on the infected bite that night.

10/10 for me.

 

[JohnK]

Sometimes Triage gets it wrong, but in the main works very well. While they will not turn anyone away, the Cat 5 patients often go somewhere else because they are not sick enough or because the wait is very long.

A friend of mine went to the public hospital near me last Friday evening with a cut hand.
Obviously Cat 5
Waited 5 hours
Needed a washout and 5 stitches.

You would know most of this much better than I would.

I didn't take too much notice of what was going on and pretty much accepted my fate as I was under extreme stress and uncomfortable. It was only later when my wife mentioned the Triage nurses total lack of professionalism and compassion. Forget what your colleagues are doing. Triage the person in front of you and show you care.

While we were sitting waiting I was uncomfortable. Others were the same. Many walked out without being seen. I could be totally wrong but to me looks like quite a few drug addicts and possibly homeless in and around the waiting room waiting to be seen. Towards the end of my brief stay heard a patient inside screaming for 15+ minutes.

I hate hospitals. I hate waiting rooms. If it was up to me I would not want to be in waiting room ever again.

 

[Pushka]

You would know most of this much better than I would.

I didn't take too much notice of what was going on and pretty much accepted my fate as I was under extreme stress and uncomfortable. It was only later when my wife mentioned the Triage nurses total lack of professionalism and compassion. Forget what your colleagues are doing. Triage the person in front of you and show you care.

While we were sitting waiting I was uncomfortable. Others were the same. Many walked out without being seen. I could be totally wrong but to me looks like quite a few drug addicts and possibly homeless in and around the waiting room waiting to be seen. Towards the end of my brief stay heard a patient inside screaming for 15+ minutes.

I hate hospitals. I hate waiting rooms. If it was up to me I would not want to be in waiting room ever again.

I think if you liked waiting rooms you’d be a weirdo and no one goes there for fun.

 

[cove]

I think the fish hook in the eye was one I will never forget.

 

[prozac]

I think the fish hook in the eye was one I will never forget.

Ouch!!! What a disaster that could have been.
Playing around with our cat it put a claw right into my eye. I had to hold the cat in place until she retracted the claw instead of ripping my eye. Luckily my GP was in and luckily the claw just missed the iris.

 

[blackcat20]

Took Miss TC to hospital recently via ambulance as she woke up struggling to breath. Still waited 5 hours to be seen.

 

[tgh]

Post op , I had an issue and we attended a private emergency facility.
triaged and seen in minutes , treated shortly thereafter and home in about 3 hours.
Iirc it cost us zilch.. perhaps because we were over the safety net threshold.

 

[Quickstatus]

I could be totally wrong but to me looks like quite a few drug addicts and possibly homeless in and around the waiting room waiting to be seen. Towards the end of my brief stay heard a patient inside screaming for 15+ minutes.

Emergency Depts are like a Zoo, the closest facsimile I can come up with is the LAX TBIT check in in the evening and no F/J check in. A Sea of humanity. What you described is actually par for the course. I get what you are saying - you thought you were being discounted. Unfortunately that often happens - the Triage see all sorts of people coming through, you were just another "walking wounded". How long were you waiting for?

struggling to breath

There are set criteria for this. There is "struggling to breathe" and then there are clinical signs of breathing trouble which point to potential trouble.
Similarly there is "bleeding to death - I cut my finger and there was blood everywhere" and actual bleeding to death.
Triage has heard it all before.

But again, Triage can get it wrong from time to time, so the saying "a squeaky wheel gets the most grease' often applies.
A mother who keeps coming up to triage and says there is something wrong with my child is a Red flag - not that the mother is nuts but a Red Flag for a reassessment. Its not a perfect system but overall an excellent system.
Its not only what you say, but what you say accompanied by physical signs.

Where A&E falls down is basically due to a lack of hospital beds (can't move patients along) and unavailability of GP services especially out of hours and often affordability - bulkbilling etc for the Cat 5 Walking wounded. Don't get me started on the Govt/Medicare not properly funding Primary and Chronic health care in the community.

safety net threshold

Private A&E fees (apart from the Drs, pathology, and other tests) are not rebatable through medicare so the SNT is not applicable. Not sure how you got it for free.

 

[Pushka]

Took Miss TC to hospital recently via ambulance as she woke up struggling to breath. Still waited 5 hours to be seen.

Did they at least check her oxygen levels?

 

[JohnK]

Emergency Depts are like a Zoo, the closest facsimile I can come up with is the LAX TBIT check in in the evening and no F/J check in. A Sea of humanity. What you described is actually par for the course. I get what you are saying - you thought you were being discounted. Unfortunately that often happens - the Triage see all sorts of people coming through, you were just another "walking wounded". How long were you waiting for?

I was there just over 2 hours. I was very uncomfortable. I did not want to wait any longer.

I know we all have different expectations but the job of the Triage nurse should be to focus on the patient she is assessing not on what her 2 colleagues are doing behind her. They were basically whining about issues they were having with some patient inside.

But let's leave that one there before I get called a liar or delusional again. I'm not upset that I was not seen. I know there are other people that need more urgent care and I'm now fine. I should have gone to medical centre and if anything serious they can refer me to hospital.

 

[Quickstatus]

@JohnK does sound like Triage did not have a good attitude.

2hrs is can feel like a long wait but for many A&E it is unfortunately a minor wait.

 

[blackcat20]

Did they at least check her oxygen levels?

The Ambos arrived very quickly. We'd already treated with Ventolin and she had improved significantly by the time they arrived. steroi_s were administered (by me) when we arrived so then we were low priority. Of course she got hyped up (roid rage) so it was a fun five hours keeping her entertained in the waiting room she was only checked once while we waited. We also monitored her oxygen before they arrived thanks to having our own pulse oximeter on hand.

 

[Quickstatus]

hyped up

Whereas a lethargic/listless kid will get elevated to Cat 1 immediate treatment.

 

[blackcat20]

Whereas a lethargic/listless kid will get elevated to Cat 1 immediate treatment.

She was hyped up from the steroi_s she was given on arrival, before that she was very subdued.

 

[Pushka]

Whereas a lethargic/listless kid will get elevated to Cat 1 immediate treatment.

Agree. My 18 month old was limp. Not subdued but limp. We'd been backwards and forwards to the GP who finally said hospital. He was seen immediately. Kept him in overnight and I stayed on a chair. In the morning like most kids do, he'd bounced back. But then I was limp from fatigue.

 

[Lost Redditor]

Today I was in the most pain/discomfort I've ever been in. I've had indigestion many times but this was extreme. It felt like I had a golf ball lodged in my esophagus, right next to my heart, and it was not budging. Normally this passes within 5-10 seconds, but today it was not getting better. I had to leave the restaurant and pace up and down the street, occasionally crouching down because I thought I might vomit. The pain got worse the longer it went on.

Eventually it did pass. I'm not sure how long it went on for. Coworker said somewhere between 5-7 minutes. They were worried about me, asking if I needed an ambulance. Luckily I know what indigestion feels like, so I knew it wasn't a heart attack.

I rate the experience 1/10, would not recommend.

 

[drron]

Unfortunately many men who have a long history of indigestion die of a heart attack because they thought they did have indigestion.

 

[Lost Redditor]

Unfortunately many men who have a long history of indigestion die of a heart attack because they thought they did have indigestion.

Yes I can imagine... I should probably call if it happens again with that intensity.