[Tagging] free_standing_emergency_department, amenity or clinic ?

Kevin Kenny kevin.b.kenny at gmail.com
Fri May 3 16:03:44 UTC 2019


On Fri, May 3, 2019 at 4:25 AM Nita Rae Sanders <cosmicrae at gmail.com> wrote:
> Please read the Wikipedia article again. While the name of an ED
> implies Emergency care, and they certainly do provide it, less than
> 20% result in inpatient admission. The vast majority are treat and
> release. In the majority of cases, it was less than something needing
> emergency response.

There's also a difference between 'requires emergency response' and
'requires inpatient admission.' A diabetic in hypogycæmic shock may
well need lifesaving emergency treatment, but be well enough to go
home in a few hours if stabilized. Likewise, many if not most unfixed
broken bones are true emergencies, owing to the possibility of the
migration of a bone fragment into an artery. Once the fracture is
reduced and fixed, again the patient can go home. Similarly, I availed
myself of the local ED one year when I suffered a detached retina on
Christmas Day. I wasn't the current patient of any ophthalmologist,
since I'd been able to make out just fine with the services of an
optometrist. Raising an ophthalmologist for a new-patient consultation
on Christmas was next to impossible, so I decided to make it the
hospital's problem. Once they'd found one, I was able to go to the
surgeon's practice with just my wife driving me; he prepared me and
performed the surgery there and then, and sent me home. He assured me
that the condition was indeed an emergency, with significant risk of
blindness if not treated within hours. (Having been both wise and
fortunate, I came through with no loss of vision.) Some things that
are emergencies simply can be attended to quickly without needing to
admit.



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