Your Health Care System At Work-A Primary Care Conundrum
Your Health Care System At Work Today, at 9:00AM I received a call from the school nurse indicating my sixteen year old son was in her office with a very low heart rate (in the 40�s). This in and of itself was not that distressing to me since my resting heart rate was 52 in my twenties, and it is a family trait. However, between the time I received her call and attempted to contact my son�s primary care provider, I received another call indicating that his heart rate was so erratic they had called 911. The triage system then required that he be evaluated by the fire department paramedic and transported to the local emergency department. Once there, he was admitted and then evaluated with X-rays and other diagnostic equipment. In the meantime, I had called my primary care provider at Washington�s Community Health Plan three times, was on hold for 15 minutes, and been patched through a �call center,� all the while never having spoken with a clinician. So, the delivery of �primary ...