wrong assessment and med

What is the name of your state? Idaho
I went to the emergency room two months ago, because it was late in the evening and just to find out that the dr said he wasn't sure what the problem was, but he would treat it as a strip throat and give me a medication that made me feel as if I were having a heart attack with the tightness, burning and shortness of breath. I disconntinued the med immediately and called the hospital, at that time, was asked to come back in. I refused, because if they did this to me once I certainly did not want another mistake on my behave.
They also gave me blood test and for what reason I am not sure, they say to test for infection, but they did not tell me then.
I had to go to another dr., a few days later because the illness was not going away.
This other dr. told me it was only an infection in my chest wall because of my coughing and gave me a medication that made me feel 100% better.
I called the hospital and asked them to lower the bill because not only did they give me the wrong med (it is used for infection, but it just wasn't for me), but they also misquoted me in the chief complaint of my med record. They say I told them I was feeling nauseated, I never said that.
I am now left with a bill of a high amount.
I have spoken with them and explained that I would pay the emergency room dr fee, but this is too high of an amount to be given the wrong med and blood test that I didn't okay, just to make things worse.
I am now wanting to go to the papers, or anything I can because I feel as if I was wronged.

[ellencee]

Darn it; I was hoping this one would be a good plaintiff situation because I do seem to be the voice of 'no way, no how'!

Strep throat does present with the symptoms that you briefly described and often is accompanied or preceded by GI symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea.

A blood test was certainly indicated. It is an important diagnostic tool.

The medication you were prescribed would only be considered to be inappropriately prescribed if you had told them you were allergic to it or could not take it for other reasons. There's a catch to that, too. A person can take a certain medication 'all their lives' and the next time they take it, have an allergic reaction. You either had a mild allergic reaction or an intolerance (adverse effect) to the medication. Write the name of it down and don't take it again. If you ever have another reaction to a medication, please go back to the doctor or to the ER. If your reaction had been more severe, you could have died from spite rather than receiving appropriate care through using good sense.

The infection in your chest wall came from somewhere in your upper respiratory tract, and strep throat meets that criteria. Infection in the chest wall is more serious than inflammation of the chest wall from coughing. I question which term was used, but the answer is irrelevant to your concerns over the ER bill and the medication.

As for the chief complaint of nausea, somewhere in the assessment process you were probably asked about many different symptoms and responded 'yes' to nausea. Probably, some billing clerk then took the listed problems and listed the complaint of nausea first. Then, when you called and your record was pulled up, it was only the billing record that was viewed.

Your medical record will have the chief complaint hand-written somewhere.

Thanks to current situations in healthcare, every complaint you confirmed as having had will appear on the listing of diagnostic codes. They submit the bill for the highest paying diagnoses; and nausea isn't a high paying diagnosis, not when compared to strep throat.

I don't see any need for you to go into the process to correct billing entries, etc. as this issue has nothing to do with your assessment and medication prescription.

If you can not afford to pay the bill, then speak with them about payments or alternate payors such as their indigent funds. It would be to your advantage to approach this on an inability to pay rather than 'I don't want to pay because it's your fault'.

From the little bit of information that you provided, I don't see where any professional failed to meet the minimum standard of care or caused you harm in any way.

[pele]

Ellencee, you are soooo good.

[ellencee]

pele
We'll just wait and see how you feel when you post your medmal question and I say "NO NEGLIGENCE"! I'll be lower than dirt and bad dirt, at that!

Thanks, though. It's a nice, refreshing change!