H1N1 WARNING:I got the vaccine 4 weeks ago and I was just diagnosed with H1N1!!
- Thread starter serene_46
- Start date
kathryn
Cathlete
Right now, two days before the last day of classes before a much-needed week-long break for Thanksgiving, I sometimes wonder.
Liann
Cathlete
hiitdogs
Cathlete
For the general population or for situations that don't pose a health risk for other patients I agree with you. However use of the ER for this type of thing is entirely appropriate. This is about protecting patients while providing an adequate and healthy work force to take care of them. Potential swine flu is not a minor ailment for a hospitalized patient or in Brenda's case where she takes care of cancer patients undergoing treatment. Hospitals run 24 hours a day and they need to be able to address potential swine flu in an employee around the clock. Hospitals need to have employees on evenings, night shifts, and weekends and holidays. Decisions about day shift staffing need to be made around 5 or 6 in the morning even for hospital based outpatient services. Swine flu is an emergent issue and it can't wait till the employee can be seen during normal business hours or at their own doctors not when patients are at risk. There's also the issue of tamiflu in this case for the employee's health and safety. The earlier it's started the better and for the employer it can mean that a sick employee can be back at work taking care of patients earlier than if they had not received early treatment. Early intervention lowers the chance of an employee infecting their entire work force. Just think about it for a minute what a major outbreak of swine flu among healthcare workers would entail. It would be an absolute night mare. So from a patient care perspective how they are handling this is appropriate.
It's also standard practice for hospitals to send employees to the ER for other things too if needed. It's usually cheaper for them to treat what they can themselves than it is to bill it out under workmen's comp or to staff employee health 24 hours a day/365 days a year. Many employee health issues need to be addressed by a physician and not a nurse and hence people are sent to the ER if it's something employee health can't handle. I'm a nurse and have worked for years in hospital based inpatient and outpatient services. I've been sent to the ER 3 times twice for injuries and once for a needlestick. Two episodes were after hours but one was during day shift when my injury required a physician's care. Patients aren't bumped because everything is triaged according to severity of injury or illness whether it's a patient or employee.
Diana
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serene_46
Cathlete
Catherine,
I agree with you that the ER is not to be used for a doctor's office. I was following protocol set by my hospital for this particular issue. We were informed to go to infection control the MINUTE we felt symptoms during our shift. My shifts starts at 6:30--- an hour and a half prior to the infection control people arriving. If we had symptoms during evening or night shift, we were told to go to th ER where additional paperwork beyond the routine doctor visits would be filled out. Since my vaccinations were recieved at work, they would be able to access the batch number of the vaccine through the computerized medical record each empoyee has. That is why I went to the ER at the hospital where I work and not to my family doctor who is close to where I live and is associated with a different hospital.
Ellie and Elaine: thank you for understanding the circumstances, I have been in the medical field for 33 years and I sometimes forget the general public is not aware of the some hospitals chose to run their infection control program.
Again, I was vaccinated 4 weeks ago for H1N1 with the injection... this positive result is well beyond any window of opportunity for a positive caused by the dead virus. In the interest of keeping this flu contained as much as possible, I wanted to put it out there that the physicians where I work as well as the infection control team see this as a new "wrinkle" in public health safety and I wanted to make as many people aware that it can happen
Brenda In Indiana
I agree with you that the ER is not to be used for a doctor's office. I was following protocol set by my hospital for this particular issue. We were informed to go to infection control the MINUTE we felt symptoms during our shift. My shifts starts at 6:30--- an hour and a half prior to the infection control people arriving. If we had symptoms during evening or night shift, we were told to go to th ER where additional paperwork beyond the routine doctor visits would be filled out. Since my vaccinations were recieved at work, they would be able to access the batch number of the vaccine through the computerized medical record each empoyee has. That is why I went to the ER at the hospital where I work and not to my family doctor who is close to where I live and is associated with a different hospital.
Ellie and Elaine: thank you for understanding the circumstances, I have been in the medical field for 33 years and I sometimes forget the general public is not aware of the some hospitals chose to run their infection control program.
Again, I was vaccinated 4 weeks ago for H1N1 with the injection... this positive result is well beyond any window of opportunity for a positive caused by the dead virus. In the interest of keeping this flu contained as much as possible, I wanted to put it out there that the physicians where I work as well as the infection control team see this as a new "wrinkle" in public health safety and I wanted to make as many people aware that it can happen
Brenda In Indiana
Liann
Cathlete
fit_fairy
Cathlete
This was my thought too. I wonder if it's common practice for sick hospital employees to use the ER? I know that health care workers in the military report to sick call at the hospital, I think they go to the ER too. Also, Fit Fairy says "ERs were made for Emergencies not sore throats and contagious ailments." I agree with the "sore throat" part, but aren't contagious ailments sometimes also emergencies?
I guess the ER's purpose for the general public is not the same as for health care workers. Anyone want to clarify this for us?
It is not common practice to for employees to use the ER in that way. I worked in a hospital for over 12 years and have been a health care provider for over 9 more years so I know how the ER works (I've worked there).
I do understand the original posters circumstances are different.
I also disagree that one needs to go to the ER after a bite. The ER is not the only place that treats such things and do that sort of testing. There is a time and place where that may be necessary but it is not a MUST.
And I didn't see where anyone was telling the OP how to do her job. Maybe I overlooked that.
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serene_46
Cathlete
Hey, I had 2 good years in the 70's!!!
LOL Amber: All I can say is the 70's were a fun decade..... All that disco dancing and sneaking into clubs when we were teenagers. My goodness there are times when I think back to those years and some isolated incidents and I feel very lucky to be alive.
One thing I will not do: No more shiny polyester clothes, Farrah hair ( God BLESS HER... but that's a whole other issue) and peasant tops for me!! As I tell my daughter, been there, done that don't want to go back!!
fit_fairy
Cathlete
As this thread unfolds you are giving more and more info that wasn't in your original post that helps me understand why you did what you did. It's just that posts like this without enough information perpetuates fear and anxiety and gives people the impression that they should go to the ER for every minor thing. I do apologize for my remarks and I hope you are feeling better soon.
BTW I am not the general public. I've been in healthcare a long long time and understand it's ins and outs very well
Liann
Cathlete
Brenda - That's how the 80's were for me. I have pictures that I hope stay hidden forever. What was it with Neon colors? I think I had socks in every color neon possible. Oy....
fit_fairy
Cathlete
Catherine, I hope you don't think I was criticizing you. I was just genuinely confused and hoping for some clarification. Thanks to you and the others who replied, I have it now.
Nope Amy I didn't take it that way . This thread is a bit confusing. It went from H1N1 to getting bitten and needing to go to the ER LOL. Not exactly sure how that happened
And you are correct some contagious diseases and illnesses are emergencies. But most are not. Of course when "you" (meant collectively) are sick it's the only thing that matters and it may seem like an emergency, but it's not always.RapidBreath
Cathlete
The thought that comes to my mind is that since she works in radiation, the likely hood is that she is working with cancer patients who would already be significantly immunosuppressed and the ER would have the test on hand. She can't just go to her job or wait until she can see an urgent care doctor. They would need to know if her station at work was exposed to the virus and be able to disinfect right away not in a few hours. Time is a significant factor in the communication of infectious disease.
btw, I hope you feel better soon!
fit_fairy
Cathlete
This is very true. But the OP simply stated she worked in a healthcare facility with no other details and that she woke up with a stuffy head, no fever and a cough and went to the ER. Well could give one the impression that you need to go to the ER for such minor symptoms. It wasn't until later that she clarified her full situation. She did what she had to do.
pixiesis
Cathlete
Thanks Catherine! I'm glad I didn't offend you. And I do see your points. It's not the fault of Brenda or anyone else who follows their hospital protocol, but it does seem like there ought to be a better solution for health care workers than the ER when it's not a true emergency. I'm not saying Brenda's situation wasn't a true emergency, either, given that she needed labs and treatment quickly and that her patients might have been at risk.
Brenda, get well soon! Good job on taking care of yourself, and your patients. I think you did your due diligence.
Brenda, get well soon! Good job on taking care of yourself, and your patients. I think you did your due diligence.
Boingo1
Cathlete
A couple things. I'm also an RN and work in a hospital with immunocompromised patients (sick pre and post chemo patients). I got the flu mist, as encouraged by our hospital. We were told that it was okay to get the flu mist, it wouldn't effect our sick patients. The only patient population at risk from it would be bone marrow transplant patients.
Secondly, for a while our hospital stopped doing the nasal swabs for H1N1 , because they aren't always accurate.
I would almost believe that your results weren't accurate. Just because of your symptoms and that you had gotten the vaccine.
Tamiflu doesn't take away ALL symptoms, you still get pretty sick from it. It just lessons the time and intensity of sickness.
Secondly, for a while our hospital stopped doing the nasal swabs for H1N1 , because they aren't always accurate.
I would almost believe that your results weren't accurate. Just because of your symptoms and that you had gotten the vaccine.
Tamiflu doesn't take away ALL symptoms, you still get pretty sick from it. It just lessons the time and intensity of sickness.
fit_fairy
Cathlete
Thanks Catherine! I'm glad I didn't offend you. And I do see your points. It's not the fault of Brenda or anyone else who follows their hospital protocol, but it does seem like there ought to be a better solution for health care workers than the ER when it's not a true emergency. I'm not saying Brenda's situation wasn't a true emergency, either, given that she needed labs and treatment quickly and that her patients might have been at risk.
Brenda, get well soon! Good job on taking care of yourself, and your patients. I think you did your due diligence.
Very well said!!
Thanks Catherine! I'm glad I didn't offend you. And I do see your points. It's not the fault of Brenda or anyone else who follows their hospital protocol, but it does seem like there ought to be a better solution for health care workers than the ER when it's not a true emergency. I'm not saying Brenda's situation wasn't a true emergency, either, given that she needed labs and treatment quickly and that her patients might have been at risk.
Brenda, get well soon! Good job on taking care of yourself, and your patients. I think you did your due diligence.
A lot of hospitals are self insured when it comes to workmen's comp. What that means is that it's faster, cheaper, and much much less hassle for the employer to utilize their own doctors, labs, x-rays etc to treat work related injuries rather than send somebody outside of the organization for care where they have to pay for everything at full price rather than what it costs them to provide by keeping it inhouse. Even if the organization had an urgent care they might not use it for employee health as urgent cares are not open 24 hours a day 365 days a year while the ER is.
Sometimes employees are given the choice whether to see an ER physician or their own doctors. Seeing my own Dr under workmen's comp involves a mountain of paperwork at the DR, Human resources, your superviser, etc. It usually takes much longer as I would probably couldn't get in until the next day anyway. I also wouldn't be reimbursed for gas and it would be harder to get reimbursed for an antibiotic (using the human bite as an example here). And then you get to do the paperwork allover again when you come back to work. By keeping it inside the organization I could be back to work in a couple of hours and not have to worry about the paperwork and if the bills are being sent to the right place yada yada. It's actually a win win situation for both employee and the employer.
All patients are triaged whether employees or patients so those most critical will always be seen first. So patients don't suffer. And it's not like there's a constant stream of employees coming through the ER. It's still the exception rather than the norm.
Swine flu is even more complicated for healthcare workers in that they are providing an essential service. If a school has a widespread outbreak they can shut it down. It may be a major hassle for parents and teachers but it's not going to cause major negative repercusions in the big scheme of things if Johnny and his parents miss a few days of work/school. But a hospital or the police department or fire department can't close it's doors if half their employees get sick. They also can't have these same employees infecting the public they serve. So they're really between a rock and hard place and have to take extra measures to prevent a widespread outbreak.
Also wanted to add my well wishes to Brenda and anyone else who's sick for a speedy recovery.
Diana
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