If you are a resident at Abington Senior Living in Abington, Massachusetts, you will be happy to know that we are now open for business (but you have to be a resident of Abington). For those of you who visit us on a regular basis, I am sure you will notice that we have a full-service receptionist and other staff members to assist with your health needs.
Abington is one of the biggest senior living communities in the nation and it’s a great place to live for many reasons. However, it’s not very convenient for some residents and, due to the lack of on-site medical facilities, we are sometimes forced to refer residents to other facilities. We have a full-service receptionist who will make the rounds of your facility with your medical questions and needs.
In one recent incident, we were referred to a facility near us in Abington and the manager was very very rude and dismissive of our needs. We were there for a scheduled appointment and the receptionist never showed up. Her name is not on our record so perhaps it wasn’t a great experience for her.
It’s not a great experience for the receptionist, but it happens, and it’s not uncommon. In one medical facility, we were referred to a different facility in another town. This time, the receptionist called back and said she would try again and would come by to confirm her appointment. This time, however, she didn’t.
The patient in question had another appointment with the same doctor in two days. She was told that she would be seeing an internist who is not a primary care physician. The internist was not present for this appointment.
In an emergency situation where you need to find a primary care doctor, you will often have a long wait time, even when a primary care physician will be on call. For this patient, the internist was not called to the scene until the appointment at the other hospital was over and the internist was ready to be called. If that same situation had been faced by a member of the same medical team in the same facility, we would have had an even longer wait.
The same could be said for the emergency department. It can take a while to get you to a doctor when you don’t have the most recent information. While you are waiting, the doctors will run tests and determine the best course of action to take. It’s not just the diagnosis, it’s the treatment that will determine the outcome.
It is almost as bad as the internist, one of the best doctors in the country. He would have been ready to go in less than an hour if it were not for the fact that he had to go to the doctor, the one person who can give him the answers. This is a problem in all parts of the country. If the doctor cannot get himself to the doctor within the time limit, the patient will be left with a very long and difficult wait.
The problem is not just a delay in getting the right diagnoses, but the fact that most patients are not treated at the right time. Instead of getting a diagnosis and treating the pain and infection, the patient is left with a long, drawn out recovery. The result is a patient who is sick and not getting the health care that they need.
The result of this is a lot of wasted time, money, and even the occasional patient who will eventually die. Because they can’t get the care they need at the right time, they will wind up taking their own lives.
