3 ms·

I'd believe it. Rushed to the hospital on a Saturday night when my father in law suffered a massive heart attack... and he was held stable for almost 2 hours b

I'd believe it. Rushed to the hospital on a Saturday night when my father in law suffered a massive heart attack... and he was held stable for almost 2 hours before a surgeon capable of working the situation was able to make it in and insert a stent. It seemed strange to me that a hospital would have a schedule like that... where most doctors work 9 to 5 monday to friday, and most everybody goes home for the weekends. People can fall ill at any time. Although I suppose the majority of people would only notice that they were ill and come into the hospital during regular business hours. I noticed this because he was in an induced coma for a few weeks. At night they lock the place up so tight there is literally only one door in the emergency room that is open to the outside. Something about them being worried about narcotics thefts. That was a frustrating learning experience our first evening in the hospital, I tell you! Thankfully he pulled through with flying colors!

ricardobeat 7y ago
The emergency ward is basically a whole new operation on the side. It is not feasible to keep it staffed with all specialties at all times, due to low volume and sparse distribution of those special cases, compared to scheduled weekday procedures in the hospital. There will be a few doctors doing shifts (sometimes just one), and the rest on call. In smaller areas there might only one or two of each specialty, and they obviously cannot be available 24/7, but will end up jumping out of family activities, sports, school and sleep basically all the time.
docbrown 7y ago
> At night they lock the place up so tight there is literally only one door in the emergency room that is open to the outside. As another commenter below said, the ER is an entire business model on its own. The goal of an ER is to treat your acute illness or injury and then proceed to push you into a dedicated room to maintain stability. Most (unsourced) emergencies that come into the ER can very likely be stabilized by RN’s and consultation from a MD/DO. honestly, most orders in a setting like these tend to come from the bottom up (RN to MD for approval) if there is a trustworthy relationship between them. Depending on the severity of the patient, of course. For an example, on 12/30 @ 2345hr, I got extreme abdomen pain and ended up in the ER. On 12/31 at 0200hr, the DO came in and palpated my stomach and concluded I had appendicitis. @ 0300 I was having a CT scan done. @ 0400 the DO was on the phone with the on-call general surgeon to consult with him about surgery for acute appendicitis which led to the eventual rupturing of my appendix. It was then at 1100 when I was in the operating room. Up until this point, every aspect of pain management (morphine every two hrs) and IV fluids were completed by a RN. For my case, there was no need for a specialist to be on the clock. One was easily in reach but up until that next morning, I had no real need for them besides the one DO who came and put their hands on me as a formality prior to doing a CT scan. I’m mostly just thankful they have specialists to call to begin with.
nraynaud 7y ago
I think you missed the word "elective", I guess the whole point was to remove emergency surgery from the study.
- Consultant32452 7y ago
  I think the principal is still the same. Surgeons do not perform surgeries every day. They usually have some days of the week they meet with their patients in an office setting. And then other days of the week they are in back to back surgery all day. It would be interesting to know what, if any, industry standards determine which days are allocated for which. Or if there is a hierarchy of surgeons who get "dibs" on scheduling their surgeries on Mondays.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

ricardobeat 7y ago

The emergency ward is basically a whole new operation on the side. It is not feasible to keep it staffed with all specialties at all times, due to low volume and sparse distribution of those special cases, compared to scheduled weekday procedures in the hospital. There will be a few doctors doing shifts (sometimes just one), and the rest on call. In smaller areas there might only one or two of each specialty, and they obviously cannot be available 24/7, but will end up jumping out of family activities, sports, school and sleep basically all the time.

docbrown 7y ago

> At night they lock the place up so tight there is literally only one door in the emergency room that is open to the outside. As another commenter below said, the ER is an entire business model on its own. The goal of an ER is to treat your acute illness or injury and then proceed to push you into a dedicated room to maintain stability. Most (unsourced) emergencies that come into the ER can very likely be stabilized by RN’s and consultation from a MD/DO. honestly, most orders in a setting like these tend to come from the bottom up (RN to MD for approval) if there is a trustworthy relationship between them. Depending on the severity of the patient, of course. For an example, on 12/30 @ 2345hr, I got extreme abdomen pain and ended up in the ER. On 12/31 at 0200hr, the DO came in and palpated my stomach and concluded I had appendicitis. @ 0300 I was having a CT scan done. @ 0400 the DO was on the phone with the on-call general surgeon to consult with him about surgery for acute appendicitis which led to the eventual rupturing of my appendix. It was then at 1100 when I was in the operating room. Up until this point, every aspect of pain management (morphine every two hrs) and IV fluids were completed by a RN. For my case, there was no need for a specialist to be on the clock. One was easily in reach but up until that next morning, I had no real need for them besides the one DO who came and put their hands on me as a formality prior to doing a CT scan. I’m mostly just thankful they have specialists to call to begin with.

nraynaud 7y ago

I think you missed the word "elective", I guess the whole point was to remove emergency surgery from the study.

Consultant32452 7y ago
I think the principal is still the same. Surgeons do not perform surgeries every day. They usually have some days of the week they meet with their patients in an office setting. And then other days of the week they are in back to back surgery all day. It would be interesting to know what, if any, industry standards determine which days are allocated for which. Or if there is a hierarchy of surgeons who get "dibs" on scheduling their surgeries on Mondays.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]