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View Full Version : Hospital length of stay and care in general.



drz
08-15-2011, 02:46 AM
I think we hijacked John's thread and didn't want us to get a Putin so decided it is best to start one here.

I agree with Jolanta that the risk of getting an infection at a big hospital is serious. The big city hospital where I need to be for specialized treatment of my GPA gets lots of unusual cases including serious infections. I have got an infection every time I was treated there so I try to get treated when I can at smaller local hospitals if possible. They consult with my Wegener's treatment team and carry out the recommendations. This worked out great for me last time and time before.

The big city hospital also at times seems to have a shortage of rooms, especially in the ICU units and I was shuffled around 14- 15 times during my stay there. In our local smaller hospitals there is no room shortage. I get my nebulizer treatments at a local hospital and am generally the only patient on the whole floor since it is usually empty and only used during a big flu epidemic or something that causes the other medical floor to get filled up.

I have not used the ER services at the big city hospital although have been transferred into the hospital a couple times, once into ICU unit and once into regular medical unit and service was prompt both times.

I have a relative who almost died though waiting for care in ER at one of NYC best hospitals so I know this is a problem in many big cities. At local hospitals I have not had to wait for more than a few minutes to be seen but if there is someone else in ER at same time who is in more critical condition the treatment will be interupted or suspended. Getting a hospital bed if needed for in patient care usually takes an hour or two with worst case I had being almost 4 hours.

When you present yourself with a GPA symptom at ER I think it is doubtful that any doctor is going to know much about how to treat you other than assessing your general health and whether you are at risk of dying soon and trying to alleviate your discomfort if possible. Like Sangye says though, the good doctors at least know they don't know a lot about what you need and will call your Wegener's specialist for advice on what to do.