Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Poor Government Service- Health Care Style

From the Las Vegas Sun: "State health inspectors have verified that University Medical Center emergency room employees neglected to provide care to a pregnant woman who was in labor, which may have contributed to the death of her premature baby.
The finding is the first independent verification of what happened that night and will likely be used as evidence in a lawsuit against the hospital.
Roshunda Abney, 25, and her fiance, Raffinee Dewberry,
waited for more than five hours Nov. 30 in the UMC emergency room. The uninsured couple pleaded for help as she writhed in pain, but she received no medical attention, the investigators found. They did not know at the time that she was pregnant.
The couple eventually gave up hope at UMC and went to Valley Hospital Medical Center, where they were allegedly told that she would not be seen in a timely manner. She went home and gave breech birth to a premature baby girl, who died"

Further: A security guard interviewed by the state inspector disagreed with allegations by employees that Dewberry was disruptive, and said employees were rude to the couple. Abney had been waiting for care for more than three hours when Dewberry politely asked a nurse when she would be seen by a doctor, the security guard said in the report. A nurse replied: “If you keep interrupting I’ll call security,” the guard said.
About 30 minutes later, Dewberry again asked when his fiance would be seen by a doctor, and the nurse lifted her finger and said, “I am going to have security escort you out,” the security guard said in the report.
“I felt the fiance was asking legitimate questions,” the security guard said, adding that the couple’s behavior was no different from anybody else’s.

UMC (University Medical Center- it is not run by any university) is the Clark County run hospital. Every year, Clark County taxpayers have to pony up $10's of millions of dollars to keep the hospital afloat.
One of the reasons UMC loses money is, if you have have health insurance, you don't go there, unless you are very ill or have a burn or a trauma. UMC has a Level 1 Trauma Center and a burn unit, the only ones in the area. If people can avoid it, they will have their surgeries and treatment elsewhere. A large part of this reason is the customer service. There are extremely long wait times in the ER and the staff are rude.
Government employees need to know that they work for the public and they need to provide good customer service. When UMC decides it is going to improve their customer service, more people will go there. The more people with insurance who go to UMC, the less money UMC will need from the taxpayer. It really is a simple concept.

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