Patient Hacker

I had a great day today talking to a group of Mums about how to access the health system effectively. Out of the six in the group, five claimed they or someone close to them had waited far too long in their local emergency department (ED). I thought I would share some of my tips and debunk some of the myths about accessing the ED. This post is written from my experience in the Australian Healthcare industry, so be aware that some of these methods may not work in other countries.

Myths and Legends:

If you travel by ambulance, you will be seen by a doctor more quickly.

No. Unfortunately, this is urban myth, and can even slow things down (if you get a triage nurse in a bad mood). This myth probably comes about because most really sick people get taken to hospital by ambulance and really sick people get seen pretty fast in emergency. Also, the paramedics are experts at communicating how sick their patients are, so sick patients usually don’t get delayed, as can sometimes happen with less experienced patients. But this skill can be learnt.

If your local doctor is closed, there are no other options but to go to the Emergency Department.

If you have the sort of condition that is well-treated by a local doctor, there are much better ways of being seen in an emergency than by visiting the emergency department. Both “24 hour clinics” and locum services offer GPs after hours. The doctors can be extremely experienced practitioners and the wait can be a lot less than going to the emergency department. With locum doctors, you even have the advantage of getting to wait in your own home, which is fantastic if you have kids asleep in another room. Although you have to pay for these services, they will normally offer better care, faster than you will get by going to the ED.

It is a waste of time to go to a private Emergency Department!

Not true either. It can be expensive to visit an emergency department in a private hospital, but you get rapid treatment by experienced professionals. If you have an injured child who just wants to go to sleep, then a private hospital emergency may be the fastest way to get them checked out and fixed in time to go home. If you are going to be admitted, and are willing to be treated as a private patient, this may be one of the fastest ways to get into hospital. Be aware that not all private hospitals have an emergency department and not all will treat public patients who agree to pay up front.

If a kid is sick, then they need to go the the Childrens’ Hospital.

The Children’s Hospital is specialized for the care of sick children. They can deal with any condition that presents itself. However, almost all other hospitals look after sick children, too. But they can deal with only run-of the-mill problems like asthma, croup, accidents, cuts, broken bones, gastro, simple infections…. the sort of things that are the most common. So, if you have a sick child, who is normally well, and you think they need to go to hospital, your local hospital is normally well-equipped to look after them. There is another advantage of visiting an “adult” hospital - most nurses can’t bear to see a sick or sad child wait, so they will send you into a room as soon as they possibly can, prioritizing you over an adult patient if possible. Triage Nurses at children’s hospital usually don’t have this luxury, as none of their patients are adult.

You always have to wait in the emergency department.

Emergency Departments are busy at predictable times, as emergencies tend to happen at about the same time. You can’t make yourself sick on a schedule, but you can change your behaviour to access the ED at quiet times. Quiet times tend to be first thing in the morning (especially on weekdays) and in the early hours (from about 3am until 6am). EDs are usually very busy in the evenings from close of business until midnight (later on weekends), and weekend afternoons. They also don’t see many patients at shift-change between 6:30 and 9am in the morning. So if you feel unwell in the middle of the night, it is not alway worth waiting until morning. If you get sick in the evening, it is worth looking for another solution.

There is nothing you can do to be seen quickly.

If you are at the emergency department because you or your family member is very sick, you can make sure you let the triage staff on the front desk see the situation clearly. These staff are nurses and are keen to figure otu quickly who is most sick, but we sometimes make it harder. Carry your screaming baby to the desk with you. Interrupt the nurse to say your father has been burnt. Take your sick mother up to the desk, so that the staff can see how sick she is (this is much more effective than simply telling them). This is the way that ambulance staff get their patients seen quickly if they are sick.

We patients sometimes get caught up in “being polite” and avoiding “annoying other patients,” and make it more difficult for the staff to know what is going on. Eventually all patients will be seen by the nurse and examined, but if you or your family-member have severe pain, or can’t breathe, or are very distressed, you sometimes don’t have to wait to be assessed. It is up to you to make sure the nurse knows what is happening.

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