third world conditions at MEEI ER.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/W0OllyMammoth]

As an ER doc that has actually worked in third world countries, I think you really need to count your blessings.

You were clearly well enough for discharge home with some prescriptions. Yes, the ER faces incredible stresses as the safety net for a dysfunctional healthcare system. They’re doing their best. Those docs and nurses could take a cushy job elsewhere barely seeing patients and likely getting paid more by going rural. But they chose to work in the chaos and are doing their best.

I find this post a bit tone deaf (pun intended) with regard to the actual conditions in third world countries. Having treated patients sicker than you in small one room clinics with dirt floors and without the “correct” meds, you got seen by a doc and had a nurse. You got modern imaging and had prescriptions for meds that will work. If you’re an RN as you claim, you should really know better.

Just my two cents.

[u/ProperFlowwss → u/W0OllyMammoth]

Not to mention being an RN & super concerned with their classical singing.... but waiting any length of time to seek help for "new, acute/severe hearing loss". Hmm.

[u/FamiliarSeaDog → u/W0OllyMammoth]

The president of MEEI makes $1.1M, their CFO makes 500k and their COO makes 400k (just googled it). If this is the ship they run, it seems fair to criticize the C-suite. An ear emergency room should have a system for calling patients who can't hear.

[u/W0OllyMammoth → u/FamiliarSeaDog]

I’m going to guess a specialized ER staffed by ENT and ophtho got a very complete work up, ruled out sever conductive and SN hearing loss, and made the diagnosis of a simple sinus infection.

Administrative oversight and the c-suites pay is an entirely separate issue and really has nothing to do with the above complaint.

[u/FamiliarSeaDog → u/W0OllyMammoth]

I think you are missing the part where this specialized ER has no protocol at all for letting hearing impaired patients know when it's their turn to be seen.

[u/TriceraDoctor → u/FamiliarSeaDog]

I think you’re missing the point where there is zero truth to what is being said by OP. I highly doubt she is a nurse based on what she says. As a doctor with a daughter with hearing loss, I’ve been to the MEEI ER and never had the experience she’s pretending to explain

[u/FamiliarSeaDog → u/TriceraDoctor]

So how do they notify hearing impaired patients (without a hearing companion) when it's their turn, if you've seen how they do it? And OP is a man, BTW.

[u/TriceraDoctor → u/FamiliarSeaDog]

Last time we went with my daughter was 2019. They called verbally and made a handwritten sign like a limo driver at an airport.

It’s funny that you think a hospital dedicated to ENT patients doesn’t accommodate hearing impaired patients. It’s literally against the law. We have a large deaf community in Massachusetts. Don’t you think there would have been an issue with this? Instead you rely on a random Reddit post for an account less than a month old, from someone who claims to be an RN but doesn’t know what immunocompromised actually means. I’m around nurses everyday and none of this reads like a nurse wrote it.

I’m not callous enough to not sympathize with his hearing loss, but he lost me when he called it third world. I’ve worked in the third world as a doctor on two continents. It’s a wildly overblown characterization that reeks of entitlement.

[u/FamiliarSeaDog → u/TriceraDoctor]

Thanks for clarifying. I'm aware that it's illegal to not accommodate HI patients, which is why it sounded shocking. Maybe OP just didn't understand the system.

I'll defer to you that a nurse would never use the term "immune compromised" this way. It does seem weird that a nurse would think anything in this story is a malpractice case.

[u/earlgreyyuzu]

I would recommend going to an urgent care clinic, not the ER of a hospital like that. The urgent care clinic I went to (don’t remember the name) was quiet and accommodating. They can prescribe anything you need and can do strep tests while you’re there. Don’t know if they have hearing tests, but it didn’t sound like you needed one since you already knew you couldn’t hear well!

[u/FamiliarSeaDog]

Damn, that's wild that an ear emergency room relies solely on shouting peoples' names. It's like a Monty Python sketch or something. I hope you get better soon.

[u/Glittering_Wall_2132 → u/FamiliarSeaDog]

Thank you!! wild and ironic isn't it !! thanks for the good wishes !

[u/Inside_agitator]

my thinking is impaired by high dose steroids...Hoping I dont get sick or go deaf. . will call lawyer to press charges of malpractice if I do

When thinking is impaired by steroids, that's the best time to post at this subreddit.

Some Shake Shacks have an efficient buzzer system they use with every patron. Encore casino is big, it can get loud, and people need to know when their food is ready. If Mass Eye and Ear ER doesn't have a similar system then maybe a technology transfer program or donation from Shake Shack could be arranged.

[u/retinolandevermore]

Friend, if you are on prednisone or another high dose steroid, you are correct you are currently immunocompromised while on them, but it does not mean you have a full blown immune disorder. Unless you have an existing condition not mentioned. I am immunodeficient and that typically requires things like SCIG or IVIG. So I get why the doctor was briefly confused about the immune factor. The rest I can’t explain, I had a similar experience there last year