Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help

[Evo]

Where did that incendiary post go? Was it deleted by the poster or by a mentor?

I deleted it.

 

[Gokul43201]

Here's a similar incident, but more shocking.

NEW YORK (AP) -- City hospital officials said they were shocked by surveillance footage showing a woman falling from her chair, writhing on the floor and dying as workers failed to help for more than an hour.

Esmin Green, 49, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours when she toppled from her seat at 5:32 a.m. on June 19, falling face down on the floor.

She was dead by 6:35, when someone on the medical staff, flagged down by a person in the waiting room, finally approached, nudged Green with her foot, and gently prodded her shoulder, as if to wake her.

The staffer then left and returned with someone wearing a white lab coat who examined her and summoned help.

Until the staffer's appearance, Green's collapse barely caused a ripple. Other patients waiting a few feet away didn't react. Security guards and a member of the hospital's staff appeared to notice her prone body at least three times, but made no visible attempt to see if she needed help. Video Watch the surveillance video »

One guard didn't even leave his chair, rolling it around a corner to stare at the body, then rolling away a few moments later.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/01/hospital.death.ap/index.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Cripes, what is wrong with people?

I used to spend a lot of time as USC medical center, and it was crazy! I can see how people just get overwhelmed. Anyone who doesn't think that our health care system is in crisis should spend a day at an inner-city hospital.

 

[Moonbear]

I don't think I'd extrapolate that the entire health care system is in crisis because of problems at inner city hospitals. There definitely are problems with the inner city hospitals, and mainly with too few staff and rooms to handle too many patients, but that's a problem with everything in inner cities...too many people and too few resources all crammed into one place.

It sounds like this example is something far worse though. This sounds like a hospital that somehow has developed an entire culture of negligence. When they're describing everything from docs falsifying medical records to cover up negligence, security guards who ignore problems in the waiting room, maintenance staff who don't clean bathrooms, etc., that tells me the problem starts at the top...administrators and human resources are not stepping into correct problems and fire staff when needed, until something like this receives media attention.

 

[NeoDevin]

administrators and human resources are not stepping into correct problems and fire staff when needed, until something like this receives media attention.

I think part of the problem is that they simply can't fire people. They are far too short staffed to meet demand as it is. From their point of view crappy help is better than no help at all.

 

[Moonbear]

I think part of the problem is that they simply can't fire people. They are far too short staffed to meet demand as it is. From their point of view crappy help is better than no help at all.

Again, that's a sign of bad management. Having such bad staff will only make it harder to hire new staff. Anyone competent would take one look at a place like that and run! The only way to change something that bad is from the top down, change the administrators and then convince potential new employees that the administration is changed to fix the problems they are seeing and they are being hired to help fix the problem not continue to put up with it.

 

[moose]

That's it:

http://www.pullman-wa.gov/content/WYSIWYG/Fire/2006EMSWeekFranklin/2006EMSWeekFranklinKeetonBackboardStraps.jpg

[/URL]

HAHA they both look so happy!

 

[Gokul43201]

Cripes, what is wrong with people?

I don't know...here's another story:

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- A mental patient died after workers at a North Carolina hospital left him in a chair for 22 hours without feeding him or helping him use the bathroom, said federal officials who have threatened to cut off the facility's funding.

The state sent a team Tuesday to help Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro draft new procedures to ensure patients receive proper care.

An investigator's report released Monday found that 50-year-old Steven Sabock died in April after he choked on medication and was left sitting in a chair for close to a day at the facility about 50 miles southeast of Raleigh. Surveillance video showed hospital staff watching television and playing cards a few feet away.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/19/patient.death.ap/index.html

 

[JasonRox]

I don't know...here's another story:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/19/patient.death.ap/index.html

I heard he wasn't insured. Too bad.

 

[edward]

I'll use this spot to post and update on this story:

Reports of homeless dumping prompted investigation
The investigation was sparked in 2006 by a Los Angeles police investigation of reports that hospitals were dumping homeless patients on the streets.

The investigation turned up something quite different than just homeless people being dumped on the street.

The hospitals involved had been recruiting homeless people to scam medicaid.

LOS ANGELES - A hospital CEO was arrested Wednesday in what authorities said was a scheme to recruit homeless people as phony patients and bill government programs for millions of dollars in unnecessary health services.

Federal agents raided three medical centers and the city of Los Angeles sued the hospitals, saying they used homeless people as "human pawns."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26061635/