equal opportunity to die

Has being a gangster become an equal opportunity profession? In the last couple of months we have seen 3 young women with GSWs. When I say young, I mean 19,20 years old. Young women (or men) shouldn't be dying of this riduculous shit.

I have a feeling its going to be a long summer, because its all starting so early.

ridiculous medicaid programs

I wonder whose idea it was to start a program called NET (nonemergency transportation) for medicaid recipients. This program provides cab rides to clinics, hospitals, etc. It costs this country billions a year. In New York state alone, according to a local newspaper, 446 million was spent in one year for these rides and for gas reimbursement. Take that figure and multiply it by 50 states, an astronomical number. Hard to believe.

In this article it talks about how methadone patients can use it to go back and forth to clinics on a daily basis.

I see this being used daily in the emergency room. Young adults (who seem to be the main people using medicaid) who are walking just fine call the 1-800 number for a cab to pick them up at the ER entrance. Now, mind you if you and I don't have a car, we either get a ride, take a bus or walk home.
Even the elderly who are on medicare can't get these cab rides.

No doubt this program was started so people would keep their appointments. Well intentioned, I guess....Now of course it is being abused like all the oother programs like this. THe question is why is this not addressed when talking about budget deficits? Eliminating this program would save billions. Somehow, I think that the people on medicaid would find a way to get to the doctor just like everybody else.

skunk tales

Here's the kind of day it was: It started off with a psych patient doing what sounded like tarzan yells. That went on for a couple of hours. It ended with someone who literally smelled like a skunk. Now mind you this patient was from the hood so no way they be comin' in contact with no skunk. They actually looked fairly clean. I don't even want to know where it was coming from and why. Of course we were busier than shit when skunk man came in. I actually put him to the side of triage in a curtained off area. I didn't want to put him in the lobby because it would have cleared the lobby and no doubt everybodys sinuses.

There was a patient who stood up on the ER chart, no small feat I tell you. A person came in restrained and had such a potty mouth, I almost went and got the soap and gave their mouth a good washing. Here come 2 people carrying in their relative who is not breathing. Down went the tube and onto the vent they went. They were young and stupid and almost killed themselves with dope.

Relatives were in nasty moods today and of course, took it out on us. As usual.
Mostly it was psych-o-rama, at one point we had five. Another fun day in the hood.

hospitals are gross

There is a new acronym afoot - MDRO (Multi drug resistant organism). I saw this on one of my charts this week. Had no idea what it was. It represents things like MRSA, VRE, EBSL, KPC. They are resistant to many antibiotics.

As time goes on I realize how filthy hospitals really are. I mean our ER is not clean. It seems like all the housekeepers do is mop the floor and empty the trash. Apparently the rest is up to us. Do you think that every time a patient leaves the entire room and all the surfaces are wiped down? You are kidding yourself. The hospital doesn't seem to care.

It seems like there is more and more MRSA. How is MRSA spread? From one person to another, not washing your hands. I also think that the isolation precautions we do are a joke. For instance, the supply cart in the room is used before and after someone with one of these infections is in it. Its contaminated.

Hospitals gross me out and I work in one. It seems like if you are ill they are the last place you want to be. Sometimes you come out worse than when you came in because there are so many opportunities for problems: infections, medication mistakes, etc. Hopefully in the future the environment will be so much better it will make now look like the dark ages.

glee and merriment abound

You know how when you go in a movie theater and your eyes have to adjust to the darkness? Well I am experiencing a similar phenomenom today. I am havinhg to shield my eyes like I am a migraineur. It is so bright outside. There is some kind of gigantic round object in the sky that is so bright that it lights up everything. Wait a minute...whats that you say? The sun....oh the sun....nah can't be. Well of course it is the sun. Didn't recognize it. Its been gone for so long that I thought it ceased to exist.

It has been a LONG HARD winter up here in the nortern tundra boys and girls. The natives are restless. There are people dizzily dancing in the street as I speak. It doesn't take much to make us happy. 20 minutes of sun in a day, temps above 40 and we're good.

It is rather frightening the mirth and merriment outside my window. Us people of the north are usually a reserved, close to vest type of folk. We are not a people prone to outward expression of glee. F--k it...I'm going out there to join them. Who knows when the sun will appear again???!!!