Thread: Needing to vent

Everyone once in a while I have to get on here and vent. I'm an RN in a major east coast hospital and usually 3/4 of my patients are illegal or are on "charity care."

This past weekend I was practically like a slave to an 70 + something egyptian woman who had, of course, come for a "visit" w/ unending chronic health problems which resulted in a 30 day hospital stay.

All weekend I ran like a dog, waiting on this horribly ill woman w/ the family and their non-stop demands. Of course, no insurance, nothing -- all on the hospital/taxpayer dime.

Last I heard, she was going to be flown back to Egypt on the hospital's dime because her condition hadn't stabilized enough while in our care.

Americans, this EMTALA law has to stop. We CANNOT take care of the WORLD!! This is going on every single day in our hospitals, and I cannot imagine how we are absorbing the costs for this!!

Doctors just do and do and do -- and order test after test. MRI? No problem! If they need it, they will get it.

Can we go to Egypt and get cared for like this???

When is this going to end? It's the WORST injustice to Americans I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!! Americans are having to foot the bill for the world's sick and chronically ill. We will surely collapse in a few years if it continues.

I'm literally sick to death of it. And I'm sick, as an RN, of working FOR these people -- because that's what we basically do. Our salaries are declining, our hosptial refuses to hire more help because they are so broke.

It's a TRAVESTY.

jjmm, it has gotten bad in some cities. Here in Oregon, it can be bad at the bigger hospitals and most likely that is OHSU. My 16 year old is a boy, sooo....we have been in and out of emergency rooms on occassion , and each time we have gone in there is a larger group of people who do not speak English (legally here or not, I would not know).

As well, the someone I know works in a local county clinic office and said it is swamped with mainly non-English speakers (legal and illegals) who claim they have no income, so they get away with paying the lowest fee on the scale.

My relative, who came here legally during WWII, invited a woman from the old country to help her with her husband who was dying. While the woman was paid for work, she rarely did anything. Then she started having "heart attacks" and the ER ran every test imaginable. My relative paid the bill. After that it was severe headaches, and the ER found earwax unseen before. The woman paid $10.

I have seen post after post like this one. You are not alone.

jjmm,
Your combined postings would make an excellent report of what is happening to the state of medicine in this country. Then, we have the burgeoning "birth tourism" industry, with numerous countries having travel agencies that arrange trips to the US for women expecting to give birth.

The fact that most of the procedures done in the US can also be done----for a fraction of the cost----in dozens of other countries was a fact that I made sure my US Senator personally heard recently. It blows apart the OBL argument (for "social justice") and the "30 million Americans w/o health insurance" argument at the same time.

I'm just so tired of it. I've decided to write my local congressperson/senator about this particular case. I don't care if it goes anywhere -- it won't. But they need to know THAT WE KNOW -- that we know what is being done to us. That we, as citizens, are being TAKEN by
any and every foreign person who needs to come here for medical treatment.

It's such a crock when they say people don't get healthcare. The truth is, ANYONE gets it -- they just dont pay. WE PAY.

And as a nurse, i'm tired of their families and their demands. They will demand like they are the only patient on the floor. Nothing is EVER too good for "ma-ma." The older women in these societies are regarded as queens -- so we, as the nurses, are viewed as serving the "queen" and therefore they run you ragged. I'm tired of it. They're not queens -- they're FREELOADERS.

JJMM, How do the other nurses you work with feel about this? Do they talk about it? What kind of comments do they have?

Some people "get it" and some people don't, or don't talk about it.

I've become a bit more vocal lately, and I find that many of my co-workers agree, but just don't seem as fired up about it as I am. Maybe one or two. The case managers definitely agree -- they are the ones who are charged with placing and working with insurance w/ so many of these patients.

Then of course, you find many mindless individuals who dont't seem to give a care about it. They just think the money falls from the sky, I guess. Or, they are more interested in whatever is going on w/ their Facebook accounts, or Dancing w/ the Stars, or whatever they do in their off time.

They often have a very clueless look about them, especially when we get these reports of budget shortages. But I'd say it's like being a frog in slowly boiling water.

jjmm,
My wife is also an RN, although she works at a major socal west coast hospital.
she has many stories, i.e. a spanish speaking only patient who was involved in car acident (his fault, he was drunk), this patient developed amnesial, and since no one claimed him and he was unable to fend for himself, the hospital was forced to keep him, ,,,,,indefinetly.

At last count he has been at the hospital for more than 8 months, as Social Security try's to find him permenat housing.

The joke is "so were is Jorge' going to sleep tonight" the charge nurse's rotate taking him, they even trade taking him for more resource RN's or other perks.

because of his accident, law enforcement wont prosecute him because they don't know who he is.

I'll stop now, the more i type the angrier I get.
Just Saying

Calls needed to demand national guard be placed at the Border!!!

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-193397.html