What is the Emergency room crisis with internet and media?

Day 55

I am dedicating this blog to the members of the healthcare organization who contribute a major part of their life in saving lives of the people in crisis. 

I have worked very close in the Emergency Department as the first point of contact. I had the opportunity to interact with some of the best health care providers, nurses, technicians, health administrative professionals, etc. The organization observed patients visiting the emergency room department for treatments from complains like the common cold to the critical cardiac arrest. Ideally for every patient their personal sickness outweighs the sickness of the other patients, but for an emergency room professional the weight of the sickness is measured based on the life threatening emergency. Unfortunately the average emergency room wait in the country is four to five hours, and during episodes of bottleneck effect the wait times could become higher. With internet availability and media shows like ER, House, Grey’s Anatomy, etc. we have many self-diagnosed patients with the expectation of response based on the televised medical drama shows. One of the most prominent questions in the ER is “How long is the wait”

So here is my question: What is the Emergency room crisis with internet and media?

What is the true meaning of an emergency health crisis? Does not a true emergency health crisis constitute a life-threatening health crisis? When did common cold become a life threatening crisis?  Was the ideology of Emergency Medical Treatment to create the Emergency Room an extended doctor’s office visit or an alternative to doctor’s office?

According to EMTALA the definition of an emergency is classified as the following

 “An emergency medical condition is defined as a condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in placing the individual's health [or the health of an unborn child] in serious jeopardy, serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of bodily organs."

What is the level of appreciation for an emergency room clinical member? I had witnessed emergency room nurses called names after providing the best patient care in the scope of their duty because of the wait times in the emergency room. Why does this happen? Does this happen because of the television Medical drama? Why doesn't the telecast medical drama focus on some of the elements like emergency room waits, scopes of duty of the triage nurse, front desk administrative professional, or any other member in the first line of contact? Why the health care workers are penalized for providing the best health care service but may have a low rating in the third-party surveys because of the extended wait times?

“As emergency room members we have listened to your complains, we have saved your lives, we have provided comfort, care and compassion, we have cleaned you when required, and all this act is done without a prescription and in return we just ask you to appreciate”

~Lenji Jacob

References:

EMTALA (2012) how does EMTALA define an emergency?  American College of Emergency Physicians Retrieved September 24, 2012, from http://www.acep.org/content.aspx?id=25936

Picture: http://media.commercialappeal.com/media/img/photos/2010/04/05/04a_t607.jpg