Our America: Rising Rate Of HIV In DC...

ThoughtCouture wrote: noneyons wrote: it kinda makes me a little paranoid and i kinda agree with femme. i assume every man is infected tbh.   i often wonder if people who feel this way ever let their guards down...like with their spouse...like when they want to have a baby...

rickysrose wrote: Why do people flood the emergency rooms if there is top quality care in the free clinics?

Simply because they feel like it and their medicaidinsurance covers it at 100%. The people in the emergency room all the time for the common cold, etc are completely aware of their resources and have Medicaid and dont feel like going to the regular doctor office or going to a free clinic. If you do not have at least medicaid, you cant just show up at the emergency room for the common cold as there is a huge sign in the emergency room that explains that they are only required to give uninsured people life sustaining treatment.

One of my best friends worked for years in the emergency room of the hospital and her job was to try to steer people that indiscriminately use emergency rooms as routine care to a division of the hospital that could better serve them:

A few hours of the day, she worked in the emergency room asking people if they were interested in HIV testing. A lot of the people would say, yes, that is why I am here. She would make an appt for them on the spot and that afternoon, she would give them pre-testing counseling, draw blood and do the test, then she would do after testing counseling and referrals for the people that tested HIV-Positive and would steer them to the correct division of the hospital to get a health maintenance treatment & regimen, regular medical care & rx drugs for the HIV.


We would have very detailed discussions where she would inform me that a lot of the people that show up to the emergency room for everything do it because they understand the law and understand that can and not because the emergency room is their only option. BUT, the emergency room is only required by law to give medically necessary, life sustaining care so there is no benefit for a truely uninsured person to go to the emergency room for a common cold, etc. Only people with some form of insurance, including medicaid get non-essential, non-emergency care at the emergency room.

I'm asking questions to understand the perceptions about the care and outcomes of care available in the inner cities

I feel like we're using very broad strokes when the reality of the situation makes it seem like there are a lot of different variables coming into play.   

ThoughtCouture wrote: rohan wrote: ThoughtCouture wrote: they do reproductive health...yearly exams...screenings...ect ect... however, our county hospital (basically free for those in need) is actually pretty good... Interesting.  In DC if you go to the emergency room chances are you're going to be there overnight sitting in those hard ass chairs.  Shout out to howard university hospital.  I couldn't imagine choosing to go sit for 12 hours when you can pop down to planned parenthood and be in and out in an hour. edit: oh and if you don't have insurance, unless you're having a medical emergency, it's a non-starter.   depending on the state, this could also be because the hospital cannot charge for an emergency visit if you are released before a certain time.  of course, there is also the legitimate triage process...but i would say often times the patient is waiting to be seen to ensure that the required time has elapsed so they can get paid...