#8: Medical Environments, Part One

http://www.rpg.net/columns/medical/medical8.phtml

Summary:

The Accident and Emergency Department.

Go to the column for more information.

[Tylorva]

That's interesting stuff. I've never been into A+E beyond minor injuries.

Just to compare though, I did get a visit to an ER when I did a working holiday in the US. It was near Atlanta. I was working at a big theme park, and took a minor knock to the head due to faulty equipment. Due to the litigation-friendliness of the injury, the company I worked for took it all very seriously indeed, pulling me off the job and sending me to the ER for a check-up (despite the fact that apart from a touch of dizziness which quickly passed, I felt fine, and kept saying so).

If I was expecting the Hollywood stereotype chaotic nature of a US ER, I was sadly disappointed. The whole place was immaculately clean, relaxed and very quiet, and woefully lacking in people dying of gunshots, tired doctors running around, interns on rollerskates, people yelling 'Stat', or any of the television tropes.

Instead, the process was not all that different from the UK. I got questioned a little by the nurse, then had a quick check-up with the doctor who declared I was fine and could go home. They then billed me $300 for the priviledge (I just handed the invoice straight back to the company I was working for).

I have no idea if my experience was typical, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting after years of watching 'ER'!

[fmitchell]

As another data point, I've been in the ER with my elderly father three times, once for a TIA (transient stroke), and twice with congestive heart failure. I'd have to agree with the generally calm atmosphere, and add that there was a lot of waiting. Waiting for the doctor to check up on Dad, waiting for the doctor to process the tests, waiting for him to get admitted to a room ...

The patient was (at least a little while after the TIA) more or less lucid and stable, so maybe that was the difference.

Oh, and once I met a college friend who was a resident at the ER where he worked. It was 2 in the morning when I finally got there (plane delayed), and the place was dead. The nurse on duty reacted cynically when I, a haggard-looking man in a black coat, asked her to page my friend and tell him I was there. I waited for a while, and then, when he came out and escorted me into the ER, he told me that when he answered the page the nurse exclaimed, "Oh, you *do* exist!" Apparently the nurses on duty at 2 in the morning are cynical and jaded, due to junkies and other crazy people wandering in and telling bizarre stories to get some drugs.

[Asklepios]

That all sounds about right...

Hang on... Are we up to Medical Environments Part One already? I am seriously slipping behind on my article writing! I better get to work...

[nick012000]

A good article, other than one thing.

You never actually state what sort of stuff will actually make you wind up in there!