Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
This is an official U.S. Army web site which provides information concerning Eisenhower Army Medical Center and regional medical treatment facilities to military beneficiaries.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia
brittany-bailey
New Member
It has been exactly eight hours since I had been greeted by the guard who was checking I.D. cards in the entrance of Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Hospital. Jokingly I had refused to show my I.D. card and after a few laughs he handed my card back to me. Now it is around the corner to the left, the Emergency Room was my destination.
Being one of the most dreaded places to have to be when you’re sick due to the rather long waiting period, I was ready to wait for a long time to be seen. When we walk in there were not as many patients as the rather full parking lot had led me to believe there were going to be. I walk to the counter to start the process of checking in, this includes; Initialing a sheet of paper, which I am not sure of the contents of anymore, and the man behind the glass wall typing your information into the computer system. As soon as I am finished there it is right back to vitals to have my temperature, blood pressure, oxygen level, and heart rate taken.
There the patient is also asked to explain more into detail what is going on medically and how long it has been going on. This process is followed by a serious of questions. Do you smoke? Drink? Are you allergic to any medicines and have you been diagnosed with any health problems. Then it was to the restroom to urinate in a cup and then back to my chair next to my mother in the waiting room.
Occasionally the wait is not very long and after an hour or so your name is called to go behind the locked doors. Sometime I have waited up to four or five hours to be seen. This visit was much different from all the rest. After waiting exactly eight hours, seeing how I arrived at 8:06 pm because this was the time written on my sign in documents and now it was 4:10 am, I decided to as the man behind the glass if I was going to be seen in the next two hours.
Promptly the man told me that we had already discussed the policy of being seen by importance, which I did understand because it would be rather difficult to miss the oversized picture frames hanging around the waiting room. A triage level I, level II, and level III patients would be seen before any triage level IV and level V patients. The man then informed me that I was unintelligent and that he can see exactly when I checked in and I had only been there for four hours now. Of course this was challenged when it was said to me and Sgt. Gordon the man in the blue scrubs sitting at the computer next to him told this man that I had been waiting there for seven hours. I didn’t argue this because it was closer to the actual time I had been waiting; I was told I should be next to be seen. I then returned to my seat in the waiting room.
Two more patients were called back around 4:30 am; these two men were young military men who were in the Emergency Room due to the fact they were intoxicated and had been “abused” in the words of the M.P., who had been taking a report on them. In my eyes, I’m sure in the eyes of the older lady with her grandson that was in the lobby apparently because the left side of his face was swollen, and the older gentleman with the ice patch on his arm, the wounds of these men were from pure drunken ignorance. The first man must have been rushed by ambulance to the Emergency Room, seeing how he came to the lobby through the back door and was followed by EMT workers. The second man had walked through the front door but had still gotten priority over everyone else waiting in the lobby, which at this point the older lady, her grandson, and the older gentleman had left the hospital.
By now, eight and a half hours later, I was furious with the way the Emergency Room was being ran. I can understand a person who was in a horrible accident or really a number of other things taking priority over my situation, but two ignorant drunk G.I.’s, now that is ridiculous, I do hope these men are severely punished for their behaviors. Now I could see the man behind the window and Sgt. Mastroanni walking back to the E.R., I’m guessing after enjoying a cigarette outside. A few minutes later, at 4:43 am, Sgt. Mastroanni yelled, “BAILEY”, from the door to the back rooms.
I stood up out of my chair and proceeded to meet him at the doorway and follow him to room 16, I was then asked if I had to urinate yet. “For what? I already did after checking in was my response to this seemingly ignorant “Medical Sergeant”. His response was that he was going to go check to make sure they had received it. He then left the room; I figured I would then be waiting another hour just to be seen by the doctor. Unbelievably the doctor promptly came to my room to reveal the urine test I had received nine hours prior to being seen was negative for any infection. I was then informed that he was not sure why I had the symptoms of this infection but could either do another “female exam” or just treat me for something he had just told me I didn’t have. I refused the exam because by this point I’m just so irritated that I had waited nine hours to speak to a doctor for five minutes for him to tell me “I don’t know”. He also informed me that, “Amoxicillin is not usually what is used to treat a bladder infection”, this was regarding the prescription the OBGYN doctor had given me three weeks early to treat a bladder infection.
Now this was the third time I had been to a different doctor that had informed me that the previous doctor prescribed me the wrong medication to treat the symptoms I was having. The doctor just looked at me dumbfounded and continued to make sure that I didn’t want him to do another pelvic exam. After assuring him all I wanted to do at this point was leave, he left the room.
The next step, he was to go put the medicines he had prescribed to me for an infection I did not have and to have a nurse being me my check out documents. At 5:45 I left the hospital without getting any medicines, without getting an actual diagnosis, and without signing my discharge documents. I had waited 45 minutes for this doctor to click a few buttons to prescribe me two medicines and a nurse to hand me printed off documents to sign so that I could go home.
I am now waiting for whatever is causing me pain to go to extremes, because this is not the first time I had been told that they didn’t see anything and was not examined any further. One time I was told this, I came back a week later and the doctor told me I obviously had bronchitis and was not sure why I wasn’t treated the first time. Then there was the five trips to the hospital before the OBGYN doctor had diagnosed me with a bladder infection.
Let me also explain that the staff in the waiting room of the emergency was extremely rude and incompetent. I’m sure I’m not the only one who deals with this when taking visit to this hospital and in my opinion if this is the way our military and military families are being treated, then I would never encourage anyone to join the United States Military, because if you are ever in a life threatening condition, good luck on staying alive.
Being one of the most dreaded places to have to be when you’re sick due to the rather long waiting period, I was ready to wait for a long time to be seen. When we walk in there were not as many patients as the rather full parking lot had led me to believe there were going to be. I walk to the counter to start the process of checking in, this includes; Initialing a sheet of paper, which I am not sure of the contents of anymore, and the man behind the glass wall typing your information into the computer system. As soon as I am finished there it is right back to vitals to have my temperature, blood pressure, oxygen level, and heart rate taken.
There the patient is also asked to explain more into detail what is going on medically and how long it has been going on. This process is followed by a serious of questions. Do you smoke? Drink? Are you allergic to any medicines and have you been diagnosed with any health problems. Then it was to the restroom to urinate in a cup and then back to my chair next to my mother in the waiting room.
Occasionally the wait is not very long and after an hour or so your name is called to go behind the locked doors. Sometime I have waited up to four or five hours to be seen. This visit was much different from all the rest. After waiting exactly eight hours, seeing how I arrived at 8:06 pm because this was the time written on my sign in documents and now it was 4:10 am, I decided to as the man behind the glass if I was going to be seen in the next two hours.
Promptly the man told me that we had already discussed the policy of being seen by importance, which I did understand because it would be rather difficult to miss the oversized picture frames hanging around the waiting room. A triage level I, level II, and level III patients would be seen before any triage level IV and level V patients. The man then informed me that I was unintelligent and that he can see exactly when I checked in and I had only been there for four hours now. Of course this was challenged when it was said to me and Sgt. Gordon the man in the blue scrubs sitting at the computer next to him told this man that I had been waiting there for seven hours. I didn’t argue this because it was closer to the actual time I had been waiting; I was told I should be next to be seen. I then returned to my seat in the waiting room.
Two more patients were called back around 4:30 am; these two men were young military men who were in the Emergency Room due to the fact they were intoxicated and had been “abused” in the words of the M.P., who had been taking a report on them. In my eyes, I’m sure in the eyes of the older lady with her grandson that was in the lobby apparently because the left side of his face was swollen, and the older gentleman with the ice patch on his arm, the wounds of these men were from pure drunken ignorance. The first man must have been rushed by ambulance to the Emergency Room, seeing how he came to the lobby through the back door and was followed by EMT workers. The second man had walked through the front door but had still gotten priority over everyone else waiting in the lobby, which at this point the older lady, her grandson, and the older gentleman had left the hospital.
By now, eight and a half hours later, I was furious with the way the Emergency Room was being ran. I can understand a person who was in a horrible accident or really a number of other things taking priority over my situation, but two ignorant drunk G.I.’s, now that is ridiculous, I do hope these men are severely punished for their behaviors. Now I could see the man behind the window and Sgt. Mastroanni walking back to the E.R., I’m guessing after enjoying a cigarette outside. A few minutes later, at 4:43 am, Sgt. Mastroanni yelled, “BAILEY”, from the door to the back rooms.
I stood up out of my chair and proceeded to meet him at the doorway and follow him to room 16, I was then asked if I had to urinate yet. “For what? I already did after checking in was my response to this seemingly ignorant “Medical Sergeant”. His response was that he was going to go check to make sure they had received it. He then left the room; I figured I would then be waiting another hour just to be seen by the doctor. Unbelievably the doctor promptly came to my room to reveal the urine test I had received nine hours prior to being seen was negative for any infection. I was then informed that he was not sure why I had the symptoms of this infection but could either do another “female exam” or just treat me for something he had just told me I didn’t have. I refused the exam because by this point I’m just so irritated that I had waited nine hours to speak to a doctor for five minutes for him to tell me “I don’t know”. He also informed me that, “Amoxicillin is not usually what is used to treat a bladder infection”, this was regarding the prescription the OBGYN doctor had given me three weeks early to treat a bladder infection.
Now this was the third time I had been to a different doctor that had informed me that the previous doctor prescribed me the wrong medication to treat the symptoms I was having. The doctor just looked at me dumbfounded and continued to make sure that I didn’t want him to do another pelvic exam. After assuring him all I wanted to do at this point was leave, he left the room.
The next step, he was to go put the medicines he had prescribed to me for an infection I did not have and to have a nurse being me my check out documents. At 5:45 I left the hospital without getting any medicines, without getting an actual diagnosis, and without signing my discharge documents. I had waited 45 minutes for this doctor to click a few buttons to prescribe me two medicines and a nurse to hand me printed off documents to sign so that I could go home.
I am now waiting for whatever is causing me pain to go to extremes, because this is not the first time I had been told that they didn’t see anything and was not examined any further. One time I was told this, I came back a week later and the doctor told me I obviously had bronchitis and was not sure why I wasn’t treated the first time. Then there was the five trips to the hospital before the OBGYN doctor had diagnosed me with a bladder infection.
Let me also explain that the staff in the waiting room of the emergency was extremely rude and incompetent. I’m sure I’m not the only one who deals with this when taking visit to this hospital and in my opinion if this is the way our military and military families are being treated, then I would never encourage anyone to join the United States Military, because if you are ever in a life threatening condition, good luck on staying alive.