Earlier this month my husband fell and cut the top of his head on a piece of furniture. Head injuries tend to bleed profusely and before long he had blood running down his head, neck, and chest. I put a towel on his head to press against the wound and called 911. So he had blood all over his hands and arms too, from holding the towel. When we got to the hospital they took him for a CAT scan and about an hour later we got the results that there was no concussion or anything and it was basically a superficial injury, not too deep, and didn't need stitches. We figured he would be released after that but then comes the "paperwork" people. They did everything by computer and left a laptop with me to complete the required paperwork on a Zoom call. Luckily I am pretty computer savvy because I had to scan his driver's license and medical cards and send to their office. Then I had to read pages and pages of technical legal stuff and digitally sign and initial them in several places. Gone are the days of handing over your cards, having them copied, and signing a couple pieces of paper and you're done. So far no one had tried to clean him up so I used paper towels from the bathroom to try and get the blood off his face, neck, chest, arms, and hands. A nurse noticed what I was doing and since she couldn't find any washcloths, she gave me a pack of wet wipes. I continued to clean him up by myself. We were told the doctor on call had to come see him and sign a release form. So we waited...and waited. Rather patiently because he's dealing with a lot of people. But after 2 hours of waiting for the doctor, we were getting a little impatient. He finally came to see my husband, stayed for less than 5 minutes and we waited another half hour for a nurse to come and take out the needle in his arm. I got him up and dressed the best I could with a tube sticking in his arm. The nurse finally came in, took out the needle, slapped a bandaid on his arm and said we could go. They brought a wheelchair, rolled him out to the curb and I helped him in the car and we went home. They didn't even clean the wound on his head or put a bandaid on it. He bled all over the sheets and pillow in the ER but they didn't seem to think he might need a butterfly closure to keep it from bleeding anymore. I can't wait to see how much they charge for the wonderful care he received. Thanks to the forum members who took the time to read this long post.
WOW ! ! I know that emergency rooms are almost always really busy and it takes hours when you have to go to the ER for some reason, and they have to take care of the most necessary patients first. But still….. I see no reason why the nurse could not have brought you some bandaids for your husband’s head, rather than just letting it bleed. They might have had to do that before the doctor came; but afterwards, they should have been able to get his head cleaned and bandaged. I am thankful that it was no worse than it was, and that it turned out not to be a concussion or anything more serious like that.
Unless something has changed in the past 20 years, standard practice at many hospitals is to charge according to what is recommended for a particular injury or condition rather than by what was actually used. The reason they will give if questioned is that the doctors and staff don't have the time to carefully document every item they might use. So the billing is from whatever the standard treatment protocol might be for the diagnosis. Most people's bills are handled through Medicare or insurance, so people don't tend to go through them carefully, if at all. For example, if a particular condition would justify the administration of a medication that the patient refused, or that the doctor didn't actually order, the patient's bill is likely to charge for that medication regardless. Additionally, the charges are usually far more than what you would pay for the same thing in a pharmacy.
Head injuries sure do bleed profusely, which I learned real fast after my husband conked his head pretty bad a couple of years ago, as well. He missed the bottom step on a ladder, and fell backwards hitting his head on a machine table in his work/hobby shop. It looked like a murder scene when I ran out to the building, after he called me from his cell phone. He was laying on the floor with his head surrounded by a big pool of blood, and his shirt and part of his face was covered in blood. We went to a walk in Urgent Care Clinic and the nurse put 5 blue stitches in his head and gave him a tetanus shot. We called his doctor first, and they didn't seem to have the time for his gashed head. The office told him to go to the clinic instead of the ER.
@Jane Carlson - so in other words you are going to pay for doing their job! Nope i would refuse or at best speak to head of hspital.
Not sure how much it will help. They are doing less and less and charging more and more, cuz they can! Glad it wasn't worse for you guys, Krystal and Jane. I remember once getting run over by one of my horses and in the foggy background, one of the girls in the barn started screaming Call 911!!!! And I growled as loud as I could DON"T call 911! I just needed to get up and find out what the problem was. Mostly it was just that I got banged up a bit. Not worth paying for an ambulance ride which is insanely expensive.
That's the way we are; just shake it off and get the bandaids. For a head bump keep an eye on the person's eyes to make sure they both dilate the same. @Jane Carlson -- sorry y'all had a bad experience and I'm glad your hubby's injury wasn't serious. Health care can be really frustrating and expensive.
Murder scene! Yes, exactly! I don't panic easily but there was so much blood I kind of freaked out. It looked like a scene from the TV show Criminal Minds. I had quite the time getting rid of the blood trail out of the carpet and cleaning up the bathroom. I'm sorry you had to go through this too!
I’m glad it wasn’t more serious Jane. I’ve only gone to the ER once (for myself) and that was for viral pneumonia and even then it was only because I passed out and was sent there. Lord knows, in my lifetime I’ve had people suggest that I go to the hospital but nope, if I think I can fix it I’ll refuse the trip. As a side, at one time I was going to follow a small trend and do the bald thing but before I did the deed, I realized that I have so many scars on my head that if I shaved my hair off, my head would look like a road map of some major city.
I was remembering a call from a friend who weakly told me she had the flu (before covid) and had passed out and her head was bleeding. She asked me what should she do. I said, I'm coming! sit down and stay safe. She said, should she call an ambulance? (this woman had 7 dogs in the house!) I said, Do you WANT to call and ambulance? She said, I don't know. I said, I am coming, I will be there faster than an ambulance--only 10 minutes away. And your dogs know me! Of course, the idiot cleaned up most of the blood. I took her to the emergency room where we were told to sit and wait after taking insurance info. ????? After about 20 minutes in an empty waiting room, my friend said, she felt she might throw up. I went to the window and asked for an emisis basin. A surprised look came over the clerk's face, like, OH this is not some run of the mill emergency. This sounds like a person who knows medicine. And we were escorted back. ?????? How long do normal schmucks with bleeding injuries wait?
I've only been to the ER once as the patient; I was having weird pains in my chest and upper back and thought it might be a heart attack. As soon as we told them that we were whisked into an observation room immediately and monitors clipped all over me. So it depends on what the issue is, but a suspected heart attack gets you IN. (I was not having a heart attack; they couldn't determine what caused the pain.)
I have had reports that people can sit for hours in our emergency rooms here in Huntsville. Of course, on the occasions that I was able to ask what they went in for, the people who said they waited for 4-6 hours were there for a boo-boo and probably an excuse to take the next day off. I know of one lady who goes just to get the white med bracelet thingy so she can include her hospital visit with her canvas for bumming money. And then there are the reports of people who call the ambulance for a ride to emergency which turns out to be a “free” taxi ride to get downtown.
I have a friend who lives near Atlanta; last year she sat in the ER waiting for nearly 10 hours. The place was jammed with people, most were definitely NOT emergencies. (She had covid.)
In my community, where the ambulance service is taxpayer-funded, the call is free, but the transport to the hospital cost. The first rule is if you are on medicare and you can walk, refuse transport because medicare won't pay for the transport. If you go in on your own, expect a few hours' wait. While transport eliminates the waiting time, time in the ER is usually 4 hours minimum with times frequently up to 10 hours. Also don't expect the same treatment in the ER if on medicare as you might get with private insurance. Things like cleaning up blood off someone's face might be skipped if they are super busy because there is no way they can charge medicare for cleaning up someone unless it was vital to stabilizing the injury or medical disorder that caused them to be in the ER. They are obligated to clean the wound, but not around it. Recently when a friend fell and I was with her in the ER for 6 hours, they found nothing wrong other than old age and while waiting for release she needed to poop but with still weak legs needed assistance that only a nurse was authorized to give. They were busy and the nurse never showed so she pooped herself. Then the nurse comes in and says she will be back to clean her up. After 15 minutes, I cleaned her up and threw her undies and cloth towels, which I found to use as wipes, in their garbage can so hopefully it would smell. When I complained to the head nurse, she said they weren't under obligation to do such, but would have as a courtesy had they not been super busy with folks waiting in the waiting room for over 6 hours. Also, medicare won't pay for anything they deem unnecessary to emergency aid, and such things are not a priority.