Latest news with #triage
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
ER nurse reveals the ONLY person medics allow to skip triage lines in hospital
No one wants to wait around during an emergency, but one ER nurse has revealed there is a particular type of person that often gets preferential treatment. Nurse and mom Caitlin Armstrong recently shared the interesting tidbit to her TikTok account, revealing there is a way to skip the line. In the video, the expert medic said the one person she keeps an eye out for is farmers. 'There are very few people in triage who get to skip the line,' Caitlin began her video. 'If you're an old, seasoned triage nurse, we very rarely pull people to skip the line and come ahead,' she continued. But she then explained into the notable exception, which she says she will occasionally pull before they have even registered. 'The farmers will get pulled every single time because they are standing there, talking to you - most likely drove themselves - and are currently having the biggest heart attack that you have ever seen in your entire life,' she shared. 'They are just standing there with a cowboy hat on, no big deal, but they have also never seen the doctor, or haven't been in at least 37 years,' the nurse continued. Caitlin then declared:, 'They will get pulled to the front of the line every time so this is just your PSA: if you're in line, and a farmer's behind you, they're gonna go first, I'm sorry. That's how the emergency room works.' Viewers - both patients and medical professionals - were then quick to share their own experiences with her assessment. 'If a farmer calls 911, as a medic, I drive a little faster cause they don't call for no reason,' one user agreed. 'Especially if his wife didn't make him come in,' another chimed in. 'I skipped line because I was bleeding out after my hysterectomy. Trust me when I say this — you don't want to be the person skipping the line,' assured someone else. The triage system is used to prioritize patients based on the severity of their medical condition. According to the National Library of Medicine, various criteria are taken into consideration when assessing patients in the ER, including the patient's pulse, respiratory rate, capillary refill time, presence of bleeding, and the patient's ability to follow commands. Last year, a study looked at the areas with speedy emergency departments, with the fastest areas seeing patients in one hour and forty minutes - while in more delayed areas it was more than four hours. The average nationwide time spent in the ED before getting discharged was two hours and 45 minutes. Nearly half of US states exceeded this, with Maryland having the longest hospital wait times - 247 minutes, just over four hours. Tied for second were Massachusetts and Rhode Island at 214 minutes. Delaware (211 minutes), New York (202 minutes) and New Jersey (194 minutes) rounded out of the top five, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, analyzed by pre-settlement legal funding company High Rise Financial. Spending more time in the emergency department increases the chances of complications like infections and the risk patients will leave before being treated. The bottom five states, where patients can expect to be in and out of the ED in two hours or less, included North Dakota (107 minutes), Nebraska (114 minutes), South Dakota (115 minutes), Oklahoma and Iowa (117 minutes) and Hawaii (120 minutes). Long ED wait times have been plaguing hospitals for years. A study conducted more than a decade ago found longer durations were associated with an increased risk of hospital admission or death within seven days. Although the overall risk is low, risk of hospital admission increased by up to 95 percent, while risk of death increased by up to 79 percent among the sickest patients.
New York Times
19-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Is It Fair for a Doctor's Mom to Get Faster Emergency-Room Care?
My partner recently took a bad fall on some concrete steps and got a large gash on her head. Fortunately, her son — a prominent cardiologist at a local hospital — was present. He drove past two closer hospitals to reach the one where he is on staff. The E.R. was basically standing room only, but she was ushered into a private room and received immediate attention, as well as staples and other treatments. A scan, too, was provided right away, with a prompt reading from a radiologist. What would probably have been a five-hour ordeal for most took less than 70 minutes. Was this special treatment ethical? One religious leader I asked said yes, arguing that such perks are a legitimate reward for his work. Another said no, insisting that no one should have to wait longer because others receive V.I.P. priority. Thoughts? — Name Withheld From the Ethicist: Here's a classic example of how our special responsibilities to loved ones can come into tension with the more general obligations we owe to others. Ideally, doctors — and indeed all of us — should support triage systems in which patients are cared for strictly according to medical urgency, not personal connections or status. That's simple fairness. Yet, in ways the philosopher Bernard Williams explored, our moral obligations are also shaped by our relationships. If, confronted with two drowning people — one your spouse, one a stranger — you paused to deliberate whether it was defensible to save your spouse, you may, in Williams's famous words, have had 'one thought too many.' Sometimes morality not only permits but requires us to give priority to those dearest to us. In this case, the doctor was making decisions not as a hospital official but as a son. Taking his mother to be his special concern, he understandably pushed for her to be seen quickly. In these circumstances, simply standing by might seem cold, a dereliction of filial duty. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
CTV National News: Alberta reporting more measles cases than all of the U.S.
Watch Some Alberta hospitals say the province's measles outbreak has forced them to triage patients in parking lots. Kathy Le on the surge in cases.
CBC
12-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
Change will help ensure serious complaints about Manitoba doctors are handled quickly: regulator
Social Sharing The regulator for doctors in Manitoba says it has a new triage system for complaints about its members that will let it respond to the most serious cases faster. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba says its newly implemented analytics unit will help it determine what course of action is needed on complaints as soon as they come in. "That way, we can pick out when we're seeing complaints that are really, really serious, and act on them really quickly," said Dr. Guillaume Poliquin, assistant registrar of complaints and investigations for the college, which self-regulates the medical profession in Manitoba. Under the new analytics process implemented on July 7, "once we receive that concern, it will be screened, and then it will come to me for initial review," Poliquin told guest host Faith Fundal in a Thursday interview with CBC's Information Radio. "If it's something that sounds … serious, like a boundary violation, then we essentially drop all we're doing and focus on that." Previously, when the college received complaints about a physician, it would determine the "best process for resolution" and "send it down that path," with the analysis happening after the fact — which could prove problematic, Poliquin said. "Because once you get into the details of a case, you can find out, 'Oh, the complaint was about the wrong doctor,'" or "the concern that was brought forward, which sounded OK … was actually really, really serious, and we should have acted on this sooner," he said. Poliquin spoke to CBC after confirming the college is "engaged" with Birchwood Medical Clinic in Winnipeg, following complaints about a family doctor working there. CBC spoke to 11 former and current patients and staff members of Dr. Christina Winogrodzka, who described different versions of the same themes, including delays in accessing medical records needed for either disability benefits or medical referrals, and delays in accessing medical results because, they allege, they were lost. One former patient told CBC that years ago, she'd tried to complain to the College of Physicians and Surgeons about Winogrodzka, but changed her mind after she was cautioned by the college that she'd have a hard time finding a new general practitioner. Other patients of Winogrodzka echoed those concerns, saying they too feared they would lose access to a family doctor if they complained. 'Power imbalance' The college recognizes "it's a really significant concern," Poliquin said. "I have a lot of sympathy and empathy for people who feel that power imbalance." The college has a directive in place that states no one should lose their family doctor because they've made a complaint, "and we do enforce that," he said. He expanded on that in a followup written statement. "If we receive a report that a physician has breached those expectations, this may result in an investigation into professional misconduct being added to the overall review," he wrote. Last month, Helena Friesen — the former patient who had earlier tried to complain about Winogrodzka — submitted a new complaint to the college. Christine Edwards, a former employee of Winogrodzka's, filed a separate complaint about the doctor with the college last month. The college confirmed as a result, it is "engaged" with the clinic, but would not provide further details.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Some Alberta hospitals triaging probable measles patients in vehicles
Some Alberta hospitals are triaging probable measles patients in their vehicles, as the province's outbreak continues to grow. Harkening back to the COVID-19 days, patients showing up at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in south Edmonton with measles symptoms are now being triaged in the ambulance bay rather than waiting for isolation rooms. Janet Laurie, a spokesperson for Covenant Health, said in an email that it expedites the process and ensures patients receive the care they need. She added that the process was in place in many other sites in Alberta. Dr. Stephanie Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta Hospital, said the triage system being used adds an "extra layer of caution" that also protects other patients in the emergency department. She said the system has been in place for at least the past couple of months, especially in facilities like the Stollery Children's Hospital, where young children cannot be fully vaccinated. Of Edmonton's total 12 measles cases since March, three were detected at the Grey Nuns. "This is of great concern given how contagious measles is and the risk to children under five and patients who are immunocompromised," Laurie said. "An outbreak on a unit would close it down to further admissions and place additional stress on the system." A spokesperson for Alberta Health Services said the process is used at health-care facilities but it is not used often. "It is used as needed and has been in place intermittently since March, so it is not a new measure," said Kristi Bland in an email. "It is not a response to a significant increase in cases, nor does it reflect an unreported or emerging number of cases." Former Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. James Talbot weighed in as the province's caseload hit 1,246 Wednesday. "It says we're in dangerous territory," said Talbot, an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta's School of Public Health. "What physicians and public health experts have been saying for months now is that the province has been very slow to react to this." "We now have the worst record in North America." Talbot said he is worried growing outbreaks could lead to the country losing its measles-free status. Being stripped of the status achieved in 1998 could have both reputational and economic impacts for Canada, he said. "If the control measures are in place and used properly and properly resourced, we didn't have to get there and we still have the ability to get back to where there aren't any measles," Talbot said. "But the longer it lasts, the more people affected, the more costly it's going to be, the longer it's going to take to get back to zero." Vaccination rates up: province Maddison McKee, press Secretary to Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services Adriana LaGrange, said vaccination efforts are making a difference, including the addition of clinics and extended hours. She said during an ongoing multi-lingual immunization campaign launched in May, Alberta saw immunizations increase by more than 65 per cent compared to the same time last year. "Between March 16 and June 28, more than 75,000 measles vaccines were administered across Alberta—an increase of more than 57 per cent compared with the same period last year. In the South Zone alone, vaccine uptake rose by 126 per cent," McKee wrote. She pointed out that there have been no new cases in Edmonton since March and none that are currently active. Talbot said he wants to see regular updates from Alberta's chief medical officer of health alongside a more robust marketing campaign because of the possibility of exposures over the summer at events like baseball tournaments, summer camps and family gatherings. "That's potential for spread to other provinces," Talbot said. "And then come the fall, we'll see those kids return and go into school. And so then we'll have another wave that we have to worry about."
