| I can't upvote this enough. > Yes, emergency rooms are a marvel of modern planning and materials. Additionally, they're not good enough. I've helped a friend go through a traumatic ER experience where she suffered 3 strokes and they released her from ER 3 times saying she was fine before she called me for help. We got her psych-eval'd so that they couldn't release her for 72 hours, so they had to run tests, and lo and behold, they did the CT that showed she had 3 strokes. This was at a world famous hospital. Sadly, this isn't an exceptional story. Most folks don't believe it until they've experienced something like this personally. While I hope most people never have to experience this, we need more people to understand that this is a real problem. Anytime you're in a hospital, make sure you or someone close to you (ideally w legal authority to make decisions on your behalf) can fight for your care. Point is, yes they are amazing compared to an alternative of nothing. We have come far. But we can do better. They are by no means a paragon. Pick any part of healthcare, and there's room for improvement. |