Where are the doctors at the ER triage?

2023-04-19 04:00:00

The emergency situation would be the worst in 15 years.

When we learn regarding the possible reasons, we mention: the lack of nurses and beds upstairs. All right but…

Only the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal has triaged doctors for years, and it’s one of the most efficient ERs. What are we waiting for to implement this throughout Quebec?

Take inspiration from the Jewish

At the Jewish, the fact that the doctors are in the triage makes it possible to quickly refer non-emergency patients to family clinics.

But above all, we aim for efficiency. A doctor at the triage can perform an initial assessment and immediately prescribe blood tests and X-rays… When the results come back, the doctor can make a diagnosis, give an antibiotic and send the patient home or keep him on a stretcher .

However, elsewhere, you are given a code and if you are not dying, you are left hanging around in the waiting room on average 3h30 before you can see a doctor for the first time. Some, following this time, will be told to go to a clinic, the others will be prescribed the examinations that they will have to wait another 3 or 4 hours.

It seems that doctors’ pay associated with triage is not high enough, so doctors elsewhere in Quebec are not interested… Misery.

Two doctors in the evening and at night

Did you know that in emergency rooms in Quebec, there would be 1 to 3 doctors in the evening and at night? At the CHUM, one evening when I showed up, there were only two and that’s usual.

I am still taken aback. Only two doctors for one of the largest hospitals in Quebec when the waiting room is crowded? TWO!

I don’t think it takes a doctorate in hospital management to say that more doctors would greatly help to unblock things, whatever doctors and managers say.

It’s true that if we put in more doctors and things roll, the word will spread and patients will go to emergency rather than going to their family doctor, and the emergency will overflow.

But between 20 doctors and 2, there is certainly a better balance to be achieved.

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#doctors #triage

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