On January 27 2016 @ 1110 my parents age 82 and 83 were directed by our family doctor to go directly to the ER and he would call ahead on their behalf.
My father, who has a recent history of Colon CA and raging UTI’s had had an episode starting on the prior Friday.Our family doctor sent him to have a catheter inserted and an diagnosis of the reason for the fluid retention ( AN ULTRASOUND). My aging parents sat in the wait area from arrival.
At 1530h I called to see what was going on and they told me the situation and that they were still in the waiting room. At this time I was unsure what was going on so I called our Doctors office. They were horrified and immediately contacted the Doctor who placed a second call the the doctor in the ER. At 1845h I placed another call to our Doctors office to say we were still in the waiting room and I intended on filing this complaint against the hospital. Neither of my parents were offered water or anything, even though water was needed by my father. We sat.At 1915h (715PM) my father finally was taken into an exam room, catheter put in and ultrasound completed, all took approximately 20 minutes. Then we wanted again. Finally the Doctor told him he had a severe UTI would need strong antibiotics and to come back to have catheter removed in aweek. My parents sat quietly in this little hospital for 11 hours to have a 20 minute intervention and to be sent home with no meds but a written script for antibiotics and no pain meds. My
Dad has had many serious infections and time is of the essence! But even with 2 calls from the doctor they were penalized and saw person after person seen by doctors and left the ER. This needs to stop! We have to review what we are doing wrong! If medical personnel send you to the ER for a catheter, I would tend to think after this many hours you must be in agony!! What is going on in our hospitals!!