H1N1 in the ER,
The waiting time in the ER has gone from 2-4 hours to 4-6 hours. The medaid taxi service (ambulances) are arriving in bunches with masked patients and EMT's. The triage nurses are trying to separate the truly sick from the merely miserable. Yours truly, an ER doc since 1978, spends my entire shift trying and failing to make a dent in the wait times.
This blog is called BONER doc not for the graphic image but for the acronym Brotherhood Of Nocturnal Emergency Room doctors. I am the self appointed Yoda of the night shift. I mainline Starbucks blackeyes (venti with two shots of espresso). My sleep schedule is disjointed and is probably shortening my life. I did a residency in Emergency Medicine when Jimmy Carter was pres. I am board certified in EM and have recertified three times. When I started in the ER there was no AIDS, no CT scans, no MRI, penicillin was an effective antibiotic, the ER was not the site for primary care medicine.
I have punched, wrestled, hugged, cried with, cursed at, laughed at and with more than 100,000 patients in my career. Doctors actually ran the ER and the hospital when I started. Now the nurse managers and the masters of hospital administration micromanage health care.
This blog will contain anecdotes, case histories (sanitized in accord with HIPPA and decency), rants, and always the truth.
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