The Canadian ER.
As of today, I have been here in Toronto for three months. Earlier this week, I got my OHIP health care card. It allows me to receive health care here in Canada. Government health care.
Since I have been here three months now, the card is officially active. And thank GOD!
See, at about 8pm, I was making my lunch for tomorrow. It included a cucumber salad. So I was in my kitchen using a mandolin to slice my cucumber into perfect and equal-sized rounds. I wasn't paying attention though... And... well...
I had an accident.
Under that once pristine white kitchen towel is my pinky finger from my right hand. Yes, it is attached to my hand. (LOL!) But, I managed to slice a huge diagonal chunk of the skin and tendon off of the top.
EEK!
So off to the ER at Toronto General Hospital I went. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. A government-sponsored health care system and it's ER? I mean, sure, I grew up an Army brat and had government health care... And it was fab. But an ER in a foreign country?
I figured I'd be in there for hours and hours. I mean, last Summer when I had my once-a-decade UTI, I was in the ER for two hours. And there were people there who had been in it for SEVEN hours. So a Canadian ER, I thought I would be in for at least three hours. But nope...
I walked through the doors of my house 90 minutes after I left. My finger bandaged up and supplies given to me to redress it in 48 hours.
What the fuck are we Americans so afraid of when it comes to government health care? My experience so far was very pleasant. And I was home in time for Mad Men.
Comments
Unnecessary visits to hospitals, especially ER's, is one of the factors that drive up costs for everyone.
In Ontario, there is a service number you can call to get advice on whether or not you should go to the ER. We called the number, and they asked me a bunch of question... Like, "Are you about to pass out?" (No. I was fine.) "Did you slice through the bone?" (Nope. Just the finger pad. But there is about a half an inch of tip missing, so it is deep.) "Can you get it to stop bleeding?" (Nope. It had been gushing blood for about 15 minutes now.)
It was the fact that I couldn't get it to stop bleeding on my own that sent us into the ER. Had the walk-in clinic been open so late, we would have just gone there. But this happened after hours, and the RN we spoke to on the phone directed us to the closest ER.
Once there, I was directed to the "Fast Track, but non-emergency" section of the ER. And they got me in and out very quickly. The ER doctor said that it was good I came in... Because the blood wouldn't stop until they applied a synthetic bandage of some kind, which is supposed to dissolve on it's own by later today. He said that if I hadn't gone in, and just took care of it myself, I could put myself at greater risk of infection. They were able to clean it properly and dress it properly, with stuff I don't have access to.
I agree with you though... Unnecessary visits to the ER are EXACTLY why medical costs get driven up for everyone. But you'll notice that a lot of the people who go to the ER in the states are people WHO DON'T HAVE MEDICAL COVERAGE TO BEGIN WITH. AND THEY ONLY GO TO THE ER WHEN IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, RECEIVING NO PREVENTATIVE CARE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I am grateful Ontario has a phone system I can tap into to gauge whether or not I need to actually go in or not. If they had told me to stay home, I would have.