Reply to Poll: how old are your kids and how many times have they been to the ER in their life?

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Reply to "Poll: how old are your kids and how many times have they been to the ER in their life?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]5:0
7:1

My observation is that some people go to the emergency room for everything. We have some friends whose kids (ages 5 and 3) have each been to the emergency room at least 8 times. These kids don't have chronic health issues or underlying conditions. They just think that a fever that lasts more than a day or two or a cough that persists more than a week deserves an emergency room visit. To me, that's a "call the nurse hotline, or worst case go to urgent care" situation. Usually we contact the nurse hotline through our pediatrician and get some good advice for treatment plus reassurance about what actually requires an ER visit, and it's fine.

My feeling is that the ER should be for: unexplained lethargy, trouble breathing (always), sudden injury (anything that makes you worry about a concussion or broken bone), or the weird kid incidents like an item lodged in an ear or nose, assuming you can't get into a pediatrician which these days you can't.

We don't go to the ER for cold symptoms, even bad ones, and we don't even go for flu/RSV type illness unless something escalates (like breathing issues). Most of the time, I think kids are best served by staying home, resting, and being cared for by a family member, not sitting in a hospital all night.[/quote]

Same. My mom's group is notorious for this. "Oh no- I think my 4 year old might have RSV- time to head to ER!" It is such a waste of ER resources. I just don't get what people think the ER is going to do for their child *unless the child has breathing problems or it's life threatening*. I wish the ER could triage people like this to an urgent care instead. [/quote]

PP here and thank you for validating. I was actually feeling really judgmental about my comment because I am judging my friends for how often they go. But yes, this is why it bothers me -- they are using up resources that really should be reserved for actual life threatening emergencies just because they are overzealous about health issues with their kids. To me it feels entitled, like "Well of course MY child should be seen immediately and receive ER care for whatever we want." I feel like some of this when you are a first time parent and are unsure where the line is makes some sense, but when experienced parents with multiple kids are heading to the ER "just in case" I get annoyed. [b]ERs are constantly overcrowded and this is why.[/b] It's time to learn some basics about what symptoms require emergency care, and also to do some research on alternative options like urgent care or nurse hotlines.[/quote]

NP - I agree that EDs are often overcrowded, but not that it’s mostly because of overanxious parents.  It’s because the healthcare system in this country effing SUCKS and many people don’t have primary care providers.  Urgent care helps, but I’m not down with blaming parents for what are systemic failures in our country’s ability to care for its citizens.[/quote]

There is also a huge doctor shortage in this country. And it was only relatively recently that preventative care was guaranteed to be covered. It used to be more financially feasible to go to the ER as a first resort. [/quote]

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