Today was shot for productive work, but I was able to observe American health care in action.
My wife had extreme abdominal pain. I got off the phone, loaded her into the truck, and we took off for the local, community, hospital.
20 minutes later we were at the hospital. This is faster than we could have gotten EMS to the house and for them to transport her to the same hospital.
When we got there, I parked right in front of the doors. Went inside and grabbed a wheelchair. This was noticed by the intake personnel.
I load my wife into the chair, reach across the cab to turn off the truck, and grab my keys. Then locked the truck and just left it there.
The intake lady apologetically quickly finished what she needed, about 2 or 3 minutes. My wife is in pain, and her moans of pain are carrying very well.
The first thing she says as she looks up was “She’s already on the board. They will see her as soon as they can.” She had started things moving when we entered the ER.
The intake person gets her name, does person verification, hands me the wristband to put on my wife. Total time, maybe 3 minutes.
“We’ll deal with the insurance paperwork after you are seen.”
We are now waiting for the ER staff to get things started.
5 minutes later, the triage nurse opens the door to the triage room and gets my wife moving into the room. He asks me to wait. I tell him I’m going to move my truck and be there waiting for him.
They do this separation to be able to ask abuse questions safely. For all they knew, the pain she was in could have been caused by me.
She was under care, getting treatment in less than 15 minutes from entering the ER.
Once she was in process, there was a delay before she had her first meds onboard. This is because they had to have some idea of what was happening before they could medicate her. They got a bunch of fluids into her. Some pain meds and things settled.
She’s home, recovering.
Conclusion
American health care is darn good. It is responsive. People get seen, and they get taken care of rapidly.
While there, the ED had at least a dozen more people come in. Everyone was treated the same. All got served.
I would have hated to have this happen in a “free” health care country. The cost my be free at point of service, but the wait times and access to the actual health care are normally pretty damn bad.
First, I’m glad your lady is okay.
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“Free” healthcare is not free, except for those who have no job. Everyone who has a job is paying for it. It’s just harder to see that as clearly from inside the system – much like welfare costs in the US, it’s just another chunk of taxes paid and not broken out as such.
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And as with most things, making it appear “free” devalues it in the eyes of those getting it. It also disconnects incentives for the providers to be better, faster, less expensive, etc.