Whats Up With The Regional Medical Center

[Sharpie]

I read in the paper this morning about someone who's daughter was treated in the emergency room and was told that her foot was not broken and a temp. cast was applied. Then they went to the ortho doctor who confirmed that it was broken. The doctors in the ER at TRMC are ignorant money hungry idiots. Some of the county paramedics provide better care than most of the doctors. The paper also had an article from one gentleman who says that TRMC should be closed and torn down.

Something really needs to be done about this hospital before things get to far out of control.

[Thumbtack]

Are you able to read an x-ray? Believe it or not, there is actually a whole profession dedicated solely to interpreting those mysterious images. Radiologists get paid a lot of money to read your films for a reason, it's not easy. I could hand you a film, and I bet you wouldn't even know which way is up, down, left, or right, let alone what bones you are looking at.

Orthopedists are also specialized physicians, and what is their specialty...bones. The only part of your body they are concerned with is your skeletal system, so if that is all they do, I would hope they become very good at it.

Emergency room physicians see multitudes of patients every shift. Insurance companies want patients processed quickly and at as low a cost as possible. If a patient has a minor fracture, it may very well go unnoticed by a harried ED doctor. The radiologist who comes in and scans films for a second opinion may pick up something the ED doc has missed. There is a mitigating factor here that you don't mention, time. It was obviously some time between being seen in the emergency department and getting an appointment to be seen by an orthopedist.

When the body suffers an insult such as a broken bone, there is swelling at the injury site. How much time had elapsed from the time of injury until the x-ray and physical exam by the ED doctor? How much time had elapsed from the time of injury until the child was seen by an orthopedist? You may not want to believe this, but both physicians could look at the same injury, with time allowed for the swelling to reduce, and both would see a totally different picture. A temporary cast is an acceptable short term splint to allow swelling to go down and a better determination of injury to be made. Childrens physiology makes this approach (soft splint) a very good decision due to the way their bones fracture and the presence of epiphyseal plates in the bone ends. It sounds as if the ED physician made a sound decision in the best interest of the patient.

Unfortunately, it also sounds as if you have an axe to grind with the hospital. You quote a paper, unnamed, and quote "some guy", also unnamed, to backup your weak and ill-formed opinion. I know several physicians who started their careers as paramedics, and the one thing they all agree on is this, being a paramedic helped them develop patient relationship skills and an iron bladder, but it also left them amazed at how little they actually knew about the human body and how it works. Paramedics are a stopgap to keep you alive until you can get to a physician. Doctors are the definitive standard of care. I can say this because I am a paramedic, and I have been for almost fifteen years. Being a paramedic has been one of the best experiences of my life, but if you were laying there with a broken bone and your choice was between a paramedic and a doctor to repair the damage, who would you honestly pick? Personally, I would pick the doctor almost every time (we all know a bad doc or two) and I'm sure you would too. It's not a slam on paramedics (Orangeburg has some damn fine medics), it's just an acknowledgement of the physician's skill.

So please do some research, and reevaluate starting this thread. From your tone it is clear you aren't worried about a chld not receiving appropriate treatment. No, you are clearly more interested in stirring the pot to create some controversy and make yourself feel better. If you are concerned enough to put it here, why not take your concerns to the hospital board or the state's medical association? They would be more than happy to listen to your take on things. It will help to bring a copy of your medical degree, plus all of your relevant publishings in the medical journals, when you go to question a doctor's treatment of a patient.