Here's a great Canadian health care story..
04-22-2009, 05:48 PM
#1
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Witnesses were outraged after staff at Saskatoon City Hospital insisted upon phoning an ambulance for an unresponsive patient discovered outside the hospital's emergency room doors.
Ken Olson, a Saskatoon contractor, was on his way to a meeting Monday morning when he noticed a man in a hospital gown lying on his back "less than 10 feet" from the entrance to the ER.
"I parked and ran in through the emergency doors and said, 'You've got someone in hospital clothing outside your doors unconscious,' " he said.
Olson said he was stunned when staff responded by phoning 911 for an ambulance. He says they told him policy prevents hospital staff from attending to patients found on the grounds.
"When something happens to an individual on our grounds, it is our policy that we do call 911," said Patti Simonar, director of emergency and critical-care services for the Saskatoon Health Region. "And in this instance, it would seem that policy was followed."
Simonar said the incident occurred Monday at about 9:10 a.m., but declined to comment on specifics.
She said the health region's policy is based on concerns regarding patient and staff safety as well as the availability of medical equipment.
"We don't always know what's wrong with the patient, we don't always know if it would be safe for our staff and our medical equipment is not mobilized," she said.
The health region believes trained paramedics or first responders with the proper equipment are better able to treat patients found outside the hospital, Simonar said.
"That's asinine," said Olson. "What if that man had died out there while nurses and doctors looked on?"
After leaving the ER, Olson watched as hospital security guards -- who Simonar said are trained first responders -- attended to the unconscious man and escorted him back into the building in a wheelchair. Hospital staff then cancelled the ambulance call, he said.
Olson is incensed by the policy and plans to take his complaints to the government.
"Whoever is responsible for this needs to be taken to task," he said.
Olson will be aided in his quest by Gail Radford-Ross, the business associate he was en route to see when he got sidetracked.
Radford-Ross lives across the street from the City Hospital ER and came to see the incident herself after Olson phoned her.
"This is a waste of taxpayer money and resources," she said. "What if that ambulance was needed elsewhere?"
According to MD Ambulance spokesperson Troy Davies, an ambulance trip costs $300 and response time is between four and six minutes.
Ultimately, Simonar defended the health region's policy, saying it was in line with first response policies across Canada.
"Our policies are based on best practice and reviewed on a regular basis," she said. "To change something, we would have to have information that this is not a safe practice or that we were the only ones doing this."
lsimcoe@sp.canwest.com
© Copyright © The StarPhoenix
Ken Olson, a Saskatoon contractor, was on his way to a meeting Monday morning when he noticed a man in a hospital gown lying on his back "less than 10 feet" from the entrance to the ER.
"I parked and ran in through the emergency doors and said, 'You've got someone in hospital clothing outside your doors unconscious,' " he said.
Olson said he was stunned when staff responded by phoning 911 for an ambulance. He says they told him policy prevents hospital staff from attending to patients found on the grounds.
"When something happens to an individual on our grounds, it is our policy that we do call 911," said Patti Simonar, director of emergency and critical-care services for the Saskatoon Health Region. "And in this instance, it would seem that policy was followed."
Simonar said the incident occurred Monday at about 9:10 a.m., but declined to comment on specifics.
She said the health region's policy is based on concerns regarding patient and staff safety as well as the availability of medical equipment.
"We don't always know what's wrong with the patient, we don't always know if it would be safe for our staff and our medical equipment is not mobilized," she said.
The health region believes trained paramedics or first responders with the proper equipment are better able to treat patients found outside the hospital, Simonar said.
"That's asinine," said Olson. "What if that man had died out there while nurses and doctors looked on?"
After leaving the ER, Olson watched as hospital security guards -- who Simonar said are trained first responders -- attended to the unconscious man and escorted him back into the building in a wheelchair. Hospital staff then cancelled the ambulance call, he said.
Olson is incensed by the policy and plans to take his complaints to the government.
"Whoever is responsible for this needs to be taken to task," he said.
Olson will be aided in his quest by Gail Radford-Ross, the business associate he was en route to see when he got sidetracked.
Radford-Ross lives across the street from the City Hospital ER and came to see the incident herself after Olson phoned her.
"This is a waste of taxpayer money and resources," she said. "What if that ambulance was needed elsewhere?"
According to MD Ambulance spokesperson Troy Davies, an ambulance trip costs $300 and response time is between four and six minutes.
Ultimately, Simonar defended the health region's policy, saying it was in line with first response policies across Canada.
"Our policies are based on best practice and reviewed on a regular basis," she said. "To change something, we would have to have information that this is not a safe practice or that we were the only ones doing this."
lsimcoe@sp.canwest.com
© Copyright © The StarPhoenix
04-22-2009, 06:25 PM
#3
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i have a number of american healthcare horror stories, worst one was when they doped up my dad and he wandered off, they checked him out of the hospital and said he was a drug user and high and wandered off so the cops didn't look for him.
We did not sue because I honestly believed the doctors were trying to do the right thing, but their upper staff and legal department prohibited them from doing so. However my dad did not get ONE bill from them, they covered the whole thing.
We did not sue because I honestly believed the doctors were trying to do the right thing, but their upper staff and legal department prohibited them from doing so. However my dad did not get ONE bill from them, they covered the whole thing.
04-22-2009, 06:33 PM
#4
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 143
I get calling for a paramedic or first responder rather than just telling some orderly to bring the guy in. Obviously the person might not do well if they are moved but its a hospital. If there's a major disaster and a traige is needed, all the medical staff chips in the help the paramedics. So they all have the same knowledge needed to make the judgment call of what to do with the patient and there should be no problem. The truly vexing part is the way the director defends the decision. "We were just following orders" and "Everyone else is doing it" doesn't fly in courts last I checked.
04-22-2009, 06:37 PM
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$300? thats it? i think its more like $3000 here... the helicopter is like $35,000, id almost rather die then pay that bill.
funny story so the track http://www.thunderhill.com/html/trackmap.html decided to put a new flag stand in that little triangle in turn 5. and the map doesnt show it, but its a hill, the bottom leg of the triangle goes around the hill, top 2 legs go up and over
so this one weekend, we ran it backwards, or clockwise, and somehow they hadn't really made clear weather we were going up and over or around the bypass. so it split the race group, they did half and half.
except this one guy in a miata, he couldn't make up his mind, so he hit the flag stand
now the people in the miata were ok, because a car is actually designed to hit things. the guys in the building were not ok, as the building isn't designed to hit things.
they had to helicopter the building guys out...
funny story so the track http://www.thunderhill.com/html/trackmap.html decided to put a new flag stand in that little triangle in turn 5. and the map doesnt show it, but its a hill, the bottom leg of the triangle goes around the hill, top 2 legs go up and over
so this one weekend, we ran it backwards, or clockwise, and somehow they hadn't really made clear weather we were going up and over or around the bypass. so it split the race group, they did half and half.
except this one guy in a miata, he couldn't make up his mind, so he hit the flag stand
now the people in the miata were ok, because a car is actually designed to hit things. the guys in the building were not ok, as the building isn't designed to hit things.
they had to helicopter the building guys out...
04-22-2009, 06:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Maxt' post='920917' date='Apr 22 2009, 07:40 PM
If you ask me, its just a policy to make sure they get to charge everyone regardless of situation, $300.00.. Everyone is a profit center in they eyes of the government.
citizens aren't called "profit centers" they are called "taxpayers" you need to get the lingo down if yer gonna roll with the big dawgs
04-22-2009, 06:51 PM
#9
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Originally Posted by phinsup' post='920918' date='Apr 22 2009, 04:42 PM
citizens aren't called "profit centers" they are called "taxpayers" you need to get the lingo down if yer gonna roll with the big dawgs 
04-22-2009, 07:08 PM
#10
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Location: California
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Originally Posted by Maxt' post='920919' date='Apr 22 2009, 04:51 PM
Taxpayers is so last year.... Victims of extortion rackets is more like it.. Really Governments now are no better than the mob.. Pay us or else.
well yeah kind of, but they are supposed to take our money, pool it and build sidewalks and public transportation and have a small army to keep the canadians from attacking, but this whole thing where we expect government to fix everything is totally lame.
you and B T DUB you get to hear about how CA get higher gas prices AGAIN, because the CARB (which isnt elected!) said we had to switch to some different kind of gas pump nozzle, so its some huge cost to renovate the ALL the gas stations that arent going out of business (something like half are closing)
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