Emergency Room rejected

[mad parent]

i went to the winnfield er today and they told me to go to the family doctor.has anybody else has this problem

[MT-MW]

Years ago I did, but not since it has change owners..... but then again, I haven't been back...

[parent]

All I can think of is that if your child has medicaid. It has to be a REAL emergency. If it is something a Family Dr can handle. And its not a weekend.. Then yea they want you to go to the Family Dr because the Medicaid want pay the ER!
This is what I think may be the problem.. Not sure. So many just skip the family Dr and go to the ER for sore throats and all. They want pay and I heard they was cracking down on it. Hope this helped!

[Walter Lee]

Isn't it illegal to turn someone away from the emergency room even though they can not pay?

[Melvin]

Technically, this is probably true. BUT... this is Winnfield, and YOUR money is king at WP Medical. That means only one thing... this hierarchy of back-scratchers will goober around and somehow avoid this issues with some kind of local political loophole. Their only aim is to GET YOUR MONEY as quick and easy as they can. If they have to work for it a little, they'll turn you away.

[Just Wondering]

What kind of emergency did you have? What time of the day? Did you go to the your family doctor?

[MT-MW]

Mine was getting beat by my husband (at the time) and since he was with me the whole time in the E.R., I couldn't explain the situation. I went in complaining of a neck injury, and was turned away. It was early evening time.

[GO TO UR DOCTOR]

First of all people its an emergency room, not a clinic. If you or your child has medicaid then they have a primary care doctor. Make an appointment!!!!! How do you expect the er to treat REAL EMERGENCIES if they are full up with sore throats and fever. Walmart sells tylenol everyday until they could get in to see their doctor. All im saying is don't bitch when your family member has a real emergency and has to wait due to the er is full of sore throats and other bull shit!!!

[see your dr]

GO TO UR DOCTOR wrote:

First of all people its an emergency room, not a clinic. If you or your child has medicaid then they have a primary care doctor. Make an appointment!!!!! How do you expect the er to treat REAL EMERGENCIES if they are full up with sore throats and fever. Walmart sells tylenol everyday until they could get in to see their doctor. All im saying is don't bitch when your family member has a real emergency and has to wait due to the er is full of sore throats and other bull shit!!!

i agree the er is for EMERGENCIES not sore throats and because you people want pain pills.... go to your damn dr and not the er....

[mad parent]

Just Wondering wrote:

What kind of emergency did you have? What time of the day? Did you go to the your family doctor?

my son was running a 103 fever and i cant realy remember the time and yes after they said to go to the family doctor

[mad parent]

GO TO UR DOCTOR wrote:

First of all people its an emergency room, not a clinic. If you or your child has medicaid then they have a primary care doctor. Make an appointment!!!!! How do you expect the er to treat REAL EMERGENCIES if they are full up with sore throats and fever. Walmart sells tylenol everyday until they could get in to see their doctor. All im saying is don't bitch when your family member has a real emergency and has to wait due to the er is full of sore throats and other bull shit!!!

so your calling 103 fever that just popped up not a real emergency....

[GO TO UR DOCTOR]

mad parent wrote:

<quoted text>
my son was running a 103 fever and i cant realy remember the time and yes after they said to go to the family doctor

So did you even call his doctor and try to get an appointment and did you give anything for that fever or did you just go running to the er?

[that depends]

so your calling 103 fever that just popped up not a real emergency....

That would depend on the age of the child. If it is a young child then I personally would not go to the ER with the child. But I have only taken my children to the ER 1x each and that is when they had a broken bone.

[GO TO UR DOCTOR]

that depends wrote:

so your calling 103 fever that just popped up not a real emergency....
That would depend on the age of the child. If it is a young child then I personally would not go to the ER with the child. But I have only taken my children to the ER 1x each and that is when they had a broken bone.

well i think that broken bones are understandable, but not a child who is running a fever and has not had anything for it!!!

[SEE YOUR DR]

I CANT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND WHY YOU PEOPLE RUN TO THE ER AND SAY MY CHILD IS BURNING UP WITH FEVER AND EITHER DONT HAVE A THERMOMETER OR HAVE NOT GIVEN YOUR CHILD THE FIRST BIT OF MEDICINE.....

[Daphne]

103 fever in a child is not really that concerning IF treated in a timely manner. Fever is the body's natural defense to ward off infection. If you go to the ER without attempting to lower the temp, it understandably does not make the staff too happy. Motrin and Tylenol work best on a rotation schedule. I personally have two children who have been running 102-103 fever off and on for a couple of days. I give them the meds, it goes down. Med wears off, it comes back up. They are both better now, with no ER visit. Thank Goodness!

[that depends]

I agree with all statements above. The ER is too expensive to go for a fever when a bottle of medicine is $5 (i hope that is right - been a long time since I had to buy meds for small children). It has always been my experience also that if I call my doctor's office they usually tend to call me back - they will let me know if there is reason to be overly concerned.

[cant be too careful]

you can be too careful with young children and high fevers, you may increase the risk of febrile seizures. It is also against the law to turn someone away from the ER, it is called EMTALA. EMTALA requires the ER to assess the patient to determine if it is a medical emergency regardless of payment sources and refer to the primary medical physician or treat the problem if it is neccessary to treat as an emergency

[EMTALA]

That is true about EMTALA, however, once the medical screening exam is conducted and it is deemed to be non-emergent, then the patient can be asked to go see their family doctor without any law being violated. And if it is Medicaid especially, they are supposed to do this if you bring a child in and it is not emergent during doctor's office hours. Just FYI..........I don't work at WPMC.

[tmaster]

mad parent wrote:

i went to the winnfield er today and they told me to go to the family doctor.has anybody else has this problem

If its not an Emgerency you should not be going to the ER.