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itstheoneontheleft t1_iwpqc76 wrote

I would like to chime in as someone who rotates between the UMass ERs. One of the smaller ERs associated with UMass had 35 boarders in a 38 bed ER. What that means is, there were 35 people waiting for beds either upstairs in the main hospital or in another facility. Essentially, 35 / 38 beds just taking up space. We had enough nurses to be taking care of 30 people tops. This is an issue amongst all UMass ERs. If you are not literally about to die you will be waiting for hours (I know it often feels as if you are gonna die, that’s why you’re in the ER. The triage nurse is an expert at sorting out sick / not sick and the doctors are monitoring the labs / vitals of people in the waiting room. If you’re waiting it’s a good thing). This is what happens when administration does not take the steps necessary to provide us with the resources to function at 100%. They are causing our community to suffer as a result. You’re anger should be directed at the C suite who is putting profits over patient care. Please, PLEASE be patient with all staff at the ER. We are not making you wait out of malice. Our hearts hurt when we see an 80 year old patient with a broken leg sitting in our waiting room for 8 hours. I promise we are all trying our best. If the triage nurse snaps at you for asking about the wait 3 times, please remember how overworked they are, how often they are berated by patients and families, how they have been working in a toxic stressful understaffed under resourced job for the past 3 years. We’re not trying to be rude, we’re not ok with people being harmed by the wait. We’re burned out and frustrated. Please, PLEASE try to be patient and empathetic. We’re trying our best 😔

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yuxngdogmom t1_iwrczs0 wrote

EMT here. A thousand percent this. We’re slammed constantly and overworked which could be mitigated by simply hiring more EMTs and paramedics and putting more ambulances in service, but the healthcare system wants to make money so they won’t do it. Hell, they’re too cheap to even pay us what we deserve. This problem is also exacerbated by the rampant 911 abuse from entitled people who think the ambulance is their golden ticket past triage. At least once a week I see a news headline about obscenely long ambulance response times, sometimes to the point that people have no choice but to drive their critically ill or injured loved one to the hospital themselves because they can’t wait any longer. It makes my stomach turn every time I see that. I hate that critical patients are having to wait that long for an ambulance but there’s not anything I can do about it as the EMT, and that is what is truly gut wrenching about it. I simply go when dispatched and try to get there as quickly as is safe for me and other drivers if it’s a code 3. I never have any idea how much time passed between the caller dialing 911 and the tones going off. I love my job but this bullshit makes me feel physically sick.

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JohnnyGoldwink t1_iwqfzyq wrote

The part about prioritizing profits over staff and customers — i’m not a nurse but this sounds a lot like my job/work environment 😒 I get it.

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[deleted] t1_iwqkj76 wrote

[deleted]

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JohnnyGoldwink t1_iwqlcb7 wrote

100% — we are failing miserably. Two of my close friends are nurses. The stress they experience at work sounds awful. I work in human services which is also insanely under-staffed, over-worked & under-paid. Been this way since the start of COVID & it’s not getting any better. I don’t even know what to think about it at this point. I’m just burnt out.

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bemest t1_iwqq9kd wrote

Could it be just not enough nurses to fill the demand? The bulk of the boomers have retired with less population to fill in. We’ve seen restaurants closing here weekly because they can’t get staff or supplies. I’m not defending the management, this should not be a surprise. Our system is not perfect and the only advantage of others is it’s paid through your tax dollars, but service isn’t necessarily better and in many cases worse. Imagine the RMV for healthcare.

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Sufficient-Voice-210 t1_iwrhgve wrote

EMS is having the same issue. If EMT’s and Paramedics were paid fairly you wouldn’t have an issue staffing

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baldymcbaldyface t1_iwredc1 wrote

Thank you for doing what you do. You might not hear it often but you are appreciated by many.

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FluorescentSedation t1_iwrwu6i wrote

This is why I peaced out of UMass, and healthcare, recently. This person speaks the truth.

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DrThrowaway4444 t1_iwsliad wrote

While the C-Suite certainly has some blame in this situation, I don't think it's as much as you're attributing to them. The main issues I see are limited staffing and lack of appropriate and timely follow up in PCP offices. I would estimate 50% or more of the patients going to the ED should be going to their primary care doctor. But they either don't have one because it's so hard to get an appointment, or they were given an appointment several weeks in the future and the patient decided to go to the ED instead.

A hospital can't just increase capacity overnight, it's a multi-year long process. With the influx of patients from St Vincent's, it's been a nightmare.

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FalsePattern6258 t1_iwt1hrs wrote

Agreed. I'm pretty sure this is a nationwide thing. Shortage of PCPs too. Shortage of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, most healthcare professionals. Yet the government decided that Medicare reimbursement for hospitals should be further decreased (it was already low compared to private insurances), meaning hospitals like UMass that get a lot of patients on Medicare and Medicaid get even less funding. As a safety net hospital, it's already difficult to stay afloat financially but I think this huge mess goes all the way up to our government. At its core, our healthcare system is so messed up. We have an aging population and have not figured out how to solve the healthcare worker shortage, and the current healthcare workers are becoming stretched so thin and burned out and patients are dying because of it.

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Neyabenz t1_iwt86mk wrote

Or they have inadequate insurance and try to tough it out. Because capitalism.

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SufficientTicket t1_iwsyyyt wrote

And yet the voters believed the hospitals and administrators and we all voted not to make staffing standards. Awful.

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Wooden-Letter7199 t1_iwr148i wrote

I very much empathize with your reply, but isn’t UMass technically a non-profit?

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