There’s an intense discussion going on at Park Slope Parents about the emergency room at Methodist Hospital. Some local blogs have picked up the story. I’m wondering if Methodist’s ears are burning.
A member of PSP, a local list-service, had a bad experience there recently when her husband was experiencing acute dizziness.
According to her story, her husband signed in at the front desk and waited for two hours in the waiting room and was never called to triage. After two hours he couldn’t take it any more and had to go home. Luckily, he felt better a few hours later; it was probably vertigo.
A few others have written in with complaints.
One member of PSP, an emergency room physician, made an interesting point about the many factors that influence how quickly a patient is seen in any emergency room. According to her, the ER physicians know exactly who is waiting to be seen and what condition they are in.
She asserts that it may not seem to the patient that he or she has been "triaged" but in fact the physicians inside the ER know about him/her and have made the decision that that patient can wait to be seen. "People who arrive in the ER are not seen on a first-come, first-serve basis. They are seen in order of acuity," she adds.
Certainly some days are worse than others in any ER. I’ve had mostly good experiences at the Methodist ER, especially the time OSFO’s head was bleeding because she ran into a gate at the 9th Street playground. Probably because she looked so awful and there was so much blood, they triaged her immediately and took care of her injury very quickly.
Another time, Hepcat went in with breathing difficulties after a severe allergic reaction to some bed sheets. Again, he was seen quickly.
Still another time, Hepcat was having arm and chest pains and he was immediately taken in. Both times with Hepcat were during the day.
But I’ve also waited hours in emergency rooms. The night before our wedding Hepcat was experiencing acute neck pain following an auto accident and we waited 6 hours at Beth Israel’s emergency room.
I tend to avoid emergency rooms whenever possible. When OSFO ran into another child in the sprinkler in JJ Byrne Park a stranger was able to stop the bleeding and I took her to a plastic surgeon in Manhattan to do the stitches on her mouth.
The question is this: is Methodist’s emergency room getting worse and why? Is it worse than other local emergency rooms. If so, which are the preferred emergency rooms?
Are there certain times of the week that are really untenable at Methodists like Friday and Saturday nights and holidays?
Are there other options? When Teen Spirit sprained his ankle our doctor told us to go to Urgent Ortho, an emergency care orthopedic facility that is part of Beth Israel Hospital. It’s a great place to go with any kind of sports injury.
Some one on PSP reccomended Park Slope Pediatrics Urgent Care right across the street above Barnes and Noble. A pediatrician named Dr. Bialik has opened this for care from 6pm-11pm.
That sounds good to know about.
while I know several lovely and extremely competent people who work at Methodist, and overall my neighbors have had good luck with it…when it comes to the Emergency room admittance….RUN to NYU!!! everyone I know who has gone to the ER (including myself) has had to wait EONS to be “triaged”…one contractor told me that he had to wait so long with worker whose finger was nearly detached that he went outside, called an ambulance, and got taken in through the ambulance entrance instead, where he was finally seen. Once inside the doctors are terrific, its just the admitting procedure that’s abysmal. I heard a rumor they are working on correcting it…hope its true!