a healthcare rant.........

There's zero reason you should have to wait that long for an acute care appointment, which your injury definitely would be.

I would start calling your insurance company and/or your doctor, mention that it's a new, acute problem, and see if you can get in sooner. Unfortunately, it takes kicking up a bit of a fuss before the insurance people listen to anything at all.

Or you can join the military and I'll have you seen by one of my buddies in Ortho/Spots tomorrow.

Ummmmm....I am Canadian........

I'm sorry to hear about this, however I think this is an excellent example of why socialized medicine is no all so great.  When I had to have a MRI on my back I was in and had it done within 2 days.

I hope it turns out OK.

Oh...

Even so, isn't there some way to get seen sooner? I mean, it might be an all-day wait but you could try the ER...

Come down to Texas. My Doc could see you on Monday.

Sorry for the trouble. What kind of knee pain is it?

Less than 10 minutes.

Maybe Aquagirl is a pitcher for the Canadian Women's softball team

I work in one of the two "socialized" systems in the US, i.e. the Military Health System, and this would be seen within a couple days.

Can I help it if other people prove my argument for me?

Sympathy rant ...

I feel your pain Helen. I often have the same problem getting into see specialists, waiting 2-3 months for the appointment and even longer for testing. My insurance company doesn't seem to care that I might to be seen sooner.

rant off ...

Hang in there

Happened on a short run last week....all of a sudden my knee just kind of gave out. Very painful to weight bear. Best guesses so far are small "flap" tear to the meniscus or irritated medial plica ....but I know I need an MRI to know anything for certain. The pain is MUCH better now, but its still not comfortable to weight bear. So i sit....and wait......and get progressively MORE grumpy!!  

...and a fine looking one at that.  If I was a doctor I would bump you on the list.  Perhaps you should send them a pic of your avatar and see what happens?


Just trying to help.

Really, Dr. Pete? With the overloading of the ER system as it is, are you really advocating adding another person with a non life threatening injury to the mix?

There are other ways to get around the referral dilemma than to abuse an already overloaded system.

John

I know there are ways in the US, but it doesn't sound like she has that many options. It's the only reason I brought it up.

For sure - get on the list asap.

When I hurt my knee last fall I got an appt. at my dr's  the next day.  I think you need to find a new doctor.  

<nevermind>



Edited by TriRSquared 2009-09-14 11:25 AM

Yeah, I know. It just irks me for some reason that (here in the US) people use the ER as their entry point rather than their doc or an acute care clinic, etc.

Military was a little different, in that ER WAS considered the entry point for a lot of things, but when I was doing checkins at a civilian ER and someone complains "I've been here 10 hours and that guy got to go right in!" when the guy that got taken in fell down with crushing chest pain and Mr. 10 hours is complaining of a stuffy nose and a cough, it got a little old.

Heh. He filed a complaint against me, because when I asked what his symptoms were and he told me, I said "Seriously? You know you could have gone to the clinic two blocks over and been seen 7 hours ago."

John

Boy I wish Ft. Hood worked that fast....earlier this year it took me 5+ weeks to get a bone scan for a suspected stress fracture, that was after I "worked" the system through some medical friends to get me into see one of the physical therapists who got me on the list for the bone scan cause I couldn't get into see the sports medicine/ortho guy for 6+ weeks. I saw him AFTER I had the bone scan, worked with PT, and basically one week before I started running again, all because thankfully, I treated it as a stress fracture and one of the PTs, who is also an endurance athlete, worked me into some of his off times so he could help me out.  Not really a fault of the doctors here, but b/w the WTU (Warrior Transition Unit), Family members, and deployments, unless you're really seriously hurt, like life, limb, eyesight serious, you are going onto a list unless you can backdoor the system. They are overloaded and overworked here. I get TriCare remote starting summer of next year cause I'll be a grad student, and I am going to use the heck of out of it cause I won't have to wait in Army lines.

This user's post has been ignored.

Hum, sure it is not just location and available resources?  You can have the best system in the world but you live in a little town with very few dr's/resources/hospitals cause no one wants to live there then it doesn't matter what kind of system you have.  You can live in some backwoods american city and have the same wait.  Has nothing to do with socialized medicine.  I never had to wait to get in where I lived.