Bad ER experience.

What is the name of your state? IL

For the second straight time we have experienced mayhem and confusion at our local Hospital’s Emergency Room. I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible… but I cannot promise it…

On the first occasion, our daughter who was just over a year old at the time was experiencing a high fever. We were brought to a room and told to strip our daughter down and a nurse would be in to take her temperature in a couple of minutes. We did as requested and proceeded to wait for the nurse. An hour and a half went by and finally the door opened and it was the doctor. The doctor told us that he was concerned about our daughter’s low-grade fever. I angrily responded that the nurse hadn’t even seen her yet. The doctor checked her at that point. We waited another half hour for a nurse to take blood. After 3 1/2 hours, we were told she was going to be held overnight for observation and a nurse would be in to take us to her room. 10 minutes later a nurse walks in our door and tells us our daughter has been released and to return if her condition changes. I told the nurse she has the wrong room.

Our second trip happened just recently. Our daughter appeared to have come down chicken pox except she had yet to have a fever and clear bubbles on the spots. Another thing that threw a flag was her eyes seemed irritated and puffy. She had just come off medication for her ears and has had allergic reactions to medications on a couple of occasions. We decided to call the ER and inform them of all of our concerns. A nurse met my wife and daughter at the door. While being escorted to the room the nurse remarked rudely; “You know we can’t do anything for chicken pox.” Where upon my wife replied that it has not been determined if that what our daughter has.

The resident pediatrician examined her and concluded that all symptoms, even the puffy, bloodshot eyes, are the results of chicken pox. The doctor gave her a prescription to help the process along and sent her home. We were unable to find a pharmacy open on Sunday so we waited until Monday.

On Monday, our daughter’s complexion lightened up, but her eyes had gotten worse. My wife brought her to our family doctor who examined our daughter and asked immediately if we had given her any of the prescription prescribed from the ER. She said no. Where he replied “good” and told her we were lucky. The drug prescribed could have put her health at great risk because she did not have chicken pox at all.

She had an allergic reaction to her previous medication (taken for her ears). My wife was fuming. The doctor had known about our daughter first experience with the ER and said he was going to report the nurse’s conduct, but most of all the, doctor’s misdiagnosis to the hospital’s board. He also suggested that we do something about it as well.

Other than refuse to pay the ER bill and maybe write an editorial to our local newspaper, what else can we do to prevent this happening to our child and every child who walks into the local ER? Many have horror stories yet no one has done anything that we know of to improve the ER and prevent it from happening again.

Can we do anything legally? Do we have any kind of a case? Can any action be taken to force the hospital to improve its ER?

Please help.

Thank You.

[ellencee]

Rich61
You have described some lousy and all too common ER performances; however, nothing was done or not done that creates a meritorious claim of malpractice. Your daughter suffered no harm; therefore, nothing can be awarded to you on her behalf and nothing can be awarded to pay the expense of litigation.

It doesn't seem that any one person was negligent but that the entire ER system is one of poor organization and in need of some structure. You can have a hand in seeing that the ER gets the help in organization that it desperately needs. File a complaint with the Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation. You can do that online. You can find out the results of the previous reviews and if the ER was cited for similar acts, make note of that in your complaint.

You can write a letter to the hospital administrator, but if you want it read before it is trashed, be sure to put a bold header that states 'copy of complaint to JCAHO'.

My advice to you is to call your child's physician next time instead of going to the ER. In children of your daughter's age, a temp of 102 degrees (F) or lower is usually not treated or a cause of concern unless it has persisted without obvious cause. I don't know why you suspected chicken pox when you took her the second time. As I read your post, I suspected a drug reaction. For future reference, please remember that symptoms of chicken pox are usually a slightly elevated fever, nausea, diarrhea, irritability, etc. and not with swollen, red, or watery eyes. The bumps usually appear on the abdomen or back first and not all over the body.

Lastly, be assertive the next time you are left unattended and obviously ignored in the ER. Go out and find your nurse or any nurse or physician and make your presence known.

Please followup with a complaint and request for ER review (Joint Commission).

Best wishes,
EC

I'm sorry. I somewhat got ahead of myself. When I mentioned "it threw a flag" I was referring to our concern that it was not chicken pox at all.

Our family doctor was out of town and as you can see we were and will always remain reluctant to bring her to the local emergency room from the horror stories we've heard and our own experiences.

Our family appreciates your advice and information you have passed along.

Thank you so very much.

[group_theory]

Just be aware that in most Emergency Departments, the ER physician's main priority is to rule out any life-threating conditions. Actual diagnosis is usually left to the specialty docs (internal medicine, peds, ob/gyn, etc)

Most of the training is centered around ruling out life-threating conditions and sending the patient for appropriate care (to a level-1 trauma, to ICU, to surgery, home w/ follow up w/ PCP, etc.

Your family doc/peds also have the advantage of knowing her past medical history along with her social history. Any physician will tell you that knowing your pt's PMH and social history (along w/ history of present illness) is very important in determining what's wrong.

My $0.02