NYU Emergency department VIP issues

[miacomet]

Quite an expose from the NYT. This is above and beyond the usual VIP crap, sounds like it is really affecting patient care. Kudos to the residents who had the courage and insight to report this to ACGME.

‘Major Trustee, Please Prioritize’: How NYU’s E.R. Favors the Rich (Published 2022)

Dozens of doctors said the nonprofit hospital pressured them to give preferential treatment to donors, trustees and their families.

www.nytimes.com

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Erased my longer response but ill say i have no issue with this. this is reality and if i donated 10-100M i too would expect special treatment. If I was the hospital i would want Chuck Schumer to have a great experience and to hold some influence over him based on his amazing experience in my ED.

 

[BoardingDoc]

For those without access, key takeaways (It's a long and scathing article):
-VIP patients get a special flag in their EMR and they are expected to be a priority

-Lots of examples about VIP BS, e.g. "I have hip pain and am a hospital exec's mom." Ortho is waiting in the room in the ED on arrival. "I have a positive covid test, no symptoms and am a VIP" Pulmonology and ID come to see the patient in the ED.

-Several docs comment about how they were placed on probation or outright fired because of treating a VIP patient like a normal patient

-EMS crews are evidently berated for dropping off homeless/drunk patients and told to bring them to Bellevue instead.

-NYU runs their own EMS service. Those patients go to NYU... unless homeless or drunk, then they bring them to Bellevue.

-Accreditation for NYU's EM program was put on probation as part of a complaint about how NYU teaches "patient bias" because of the above issues. They're on probation for the next 2 yrs.

-NYU's response about the complaint: "it isn't true"

-Accreditation council's response to that: "Yeah it is, we have proof, you're still on probation."

 

[NYEMMED]

The hospital is named NYU Langone. When Mr. Langone himself walks in as a patient I think it’s reasonable that he is a priority.

Let’s face it, we all do this with our families. How many of your families would wait 8-10 hours in a waiting room? No, you would ask the charge nurse to bring them back.

This is essentially the same thing.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

The hospital is named NYU Langone. When Mr. Langone himself walks in as a patient I think it’s reasonable that he is a priority.

Let’s face it, we all do this with our families. How many of your families would wait 8-10 hours in a waiting room? No, you would ask the charge nurse to bring them back.

This is essentially the same thing.

Great article that mirrors my own experience in academics.

Personally I’d never want me or my family to take priority over someone who needs urgent medical care. Period full stop. I’ve got no problem ****ing waiting for 6 hours if I have to.

Tons of lol worthy comments in there, I particularly like this one:

“I didn’t have to wait around for long hours for someone to come talk to me as happens in other emergency rooms,” said Bernard Schwartz, who said he had donated more than $30 million to NYU Langone. “I think that’s for all patients.”

Haha. And if there’s no VIP program there should be no need for dedicated hotlines, reserved rooms etc.

 

[Kryptocoin]

Every industry treats VIPs differently. Banks, hotels, airlines, restaurants, colleges all crater to VIPs preferentially. That's capitalism. The entire Mayo Clinic system is built on cratering to wealthy VIP patients. Hospitals need the money. NYU med school just went tuition-free recently. That money didn't come from nowhere.

I get irritated when VIP pts try to dictate care but that's nothing new.

 

[pkwraith]

Too bad VIPs get objectively worse care where it actually matters, mortality and morbidity. Overtested, overtreated, overadmitted and exposed to a whole host of iatregenic harm.

 

[thegenius]

Great article that mirrors my own experience in academics.

Personally I’d never want me or my family to take priority over someone who needs urgent medical care. Period full stop. I’ve got no problem ****ing waiting for 6 hours if I have to.

Tons of lol worthy comments in there, I particularly like this one:

“I didn’t have to wait around for long hours for someone to come talk to me as happens in other emergency rooms,” said Bernard Schwartz, who said he had donated more than $30 million to NYU Langone. “I think that’s for all patients.”

Haha. And if there’s no VIP program there should be no need for dedicated hotlines, reserved rooms etc.

30 M can get you a lot, I guess. Plus 30M was prob a drop in the bucket for a donation from him.

I bet Schwartz also has a concierge doc too at a few grand / month

 

[thegenius]

Too bad VIPs get objectively worse care where it actually matters, mortality and morbidity. Overtested, overtreated, overadmitted and exposed to a whole host of iatregenic harm.

That’s the truth

 

[HemeOncHopeful19]

They can donate all they want but I don’t see a dime of it not sure why I should give a crap.

It’d be interesting to see how it would go over if the hospital paid a higher RVU bonus for the VIP patients - I’m sure that’d against some regulation though.

 

[GassYous]

Usually these anti healthcare articles are full of fluff and overstated bs but this article is 100% true. There is an unhealthy amount of vip syndrome at that facility.


Yet in the real world, things cost money and some people are just more important than others. Rah rah rah everyone's equal yeah that's nice to have as your personal philosophy but it takes money and influence to build those facilities, staff the rooms, purchase the equipment, etc. Rich and powerful people get better and nicer things. That's how it works. We don't have infinite resources to do everything for everyone.

 

[Brigade4Radiant]

Yet if a VIP suffers a bad outcome it gets published and people get sued like the article a few days back that NYTimes did about the girl not getting imaging for what turned out to be appendicitis

 

[bearstanley]

Erased my longer response but ill say i have no issue with this. this is reality and if i donated 10-100M i too would expect special treatment. If I was the hospital i would want Chuck Schumer to have a great experience and to hold some influence over him based on his amazing experience in my ED.

yeah, i mean i feel you on this. nothing irks me more than my chair calling my dumpster fire of an ER to say his buddy from the club is coming in for some sutures and to make sure he's taken care of. this is the reality of the power structure of medicine. you want capitalism, free market healthcare-- this is the unavoidable result of that system. if hospitals didn't need donors to stay afloat, you would have no impetus to treat them differently.

 

[Boatswain2PA]

yeah, i mean i feel you on this. nothing irks me more than my chair calling my dumpster fire of an ER to say his buddy from the club is coming in for some sutures and to make sure he's taken care of. this is the reality of the power structure of medicine. you want capitalism, free market healthcare-- this is the unavoidable result of that system. if hospitals didn't need donors to stay afloat, you would have no impetus to treat them differently.

And yet the exact same thing happens in full socialist healthcare markets where "party members" and their families are given the VIP treatment.

 

[DeadCactus]

On a practical level, I think it gets really gray to figure out what benefits the most people and what the right answer is. Ultimately there is a spectrum where one end is an unrealistic ideal, the middle are accommodations that satisfy VIP patients with minimal or positive impact on other patients, and then the other end are just shameful practices by garbage, entitled people.

 

[EctopicFetus]

yeah, i mean i feel you on this. nothing irks me more than my chair calling my dumpster fire of an ER to say his buddy from the club is coming in for some sutures and to make sure he's taken care of. this is the reality of the power structure of medicine. you want capitalism, free market healthcare-- this is the unavoidable result of that system. if hospitals didn't need donors to stay afloat, you would have no impetus to treat them differently.

Sure they would. It’s not just money but it’s also influence, power and relationships. Let’s say we were fully Medicare for all. Do you think your buddy or the ceos buddy isn’t skipping the line? Of course they are.

 

[emergentmd]

I have no issues with VIP treatment. The small amount of extra work pales in what they did/will do for the hospital. This is how life works, and if you have a big issue with this, then become a VIP. Anyone who says they don't get or give VIP access is fooling themselves.

1. I part own a FSER. I give VIP treatment for all friends/family. My daughter broke her finger. I called, xrays done in 5 min, out in 10, and never checked in. I have sutured friends in the back without registering.

2. During peek covid, had wife's friend who had a dissection on vacation and stuck in a crappy hospital in the ER with people dying all around. People held for days and was told there are no beds anywhere. I called up the CMO of my hospital system, and got him a bed in a speciality hospital. The ER doc/nurses wouldn't even initiate a transfer call even when the family asked b/c no one was accepting. They were shocked that a bed was waiting for him.

Point is, I treat my friends/family well. This gets paid back, its life. In reality, not all people are equal. Some give so much benefit to the world that their loss would be significant and they deserve fast/quick/best care.

 

[emperor tamarin]

I am surprised by the number of people who are ok with this. I think there's the "normal" level of VIP care - call/heads up, pay some extra attention - and then there's NYU flagging charts, firing attendings who they felt didn't massage vips enough, placing a resident in the article on remediation for telling a VIP not to enter the nursing station during rounding, etc.

And then probably the most infuriating part of this is their spokesperson just absolutely smearing everyone named on the article. They have like a dozen former attendings and residents who commented (and spoke to 30+ others who I assume didn't want to be named lest they be fired) - the NYU response was
"This person is mad because they didn't get a job here"
"This person got a bad performance review and got let go"
"This person has an agenda"
"This resident didn't get a job offer so they're disgruntled"
For every single one of them.

They also just tell total lies about there "not being any vip program" even though the journalists had the receipts (and it looks like acgme does too). The article openly essentially says that NYU is lying.

A little vip exceptionalism happens everywhere. This is egregious mistreatment of their staff and smearing their former residents. Disgusting behavior.

 

[southerndoc]

Every hospital in America gives VIP treatment to its board members, physicians, nurses, etc.

Putting notations in Epic is a little much though. I'm surprised the ACGME put the EM residency on probation for this.

 

[benem]

I suspect the issues here have more to do with the patient dumping on Bellevue, which is likely an EMTALA violation. NYC has always had this problem. Very few low income patients seem to end up at the major non-public hospitals and instead are shifted to city hospitals.

VIPs are a part of life for any ED and something we have to deal with. There are so many different kinds, from hospital employees and their family members to major donors to prominent community members. As long as care for both these patients and other patients doesn’t suffer I don’t really see the problem with making things somewhat more comfortable for them. In my hospital the bigger issue has been VIPs trying to have their physicians bypass the ED and direct admit them to the hospital. It got to the point where certain physicians were banned from direct admitting.

 

[alpinism]

Full disclosure I was interviewed for this article.

The NYT reporters are planning on doing a whole series on VIP care in hospitals.

I will say the article is only the very tip of the iceberg and the current system essentially replaces ED triage by acuity with ED triage by money. Functionally speaking that means if you are wealthy or a celebrity and you show up you are treated as a level 1 and placed in resus while getting priority for all laboratory and imaging studies ahead of patients with actual level 1 complaints. In order to make this happen they'll end up moving resus patients from resus bays and place them in hallways. It's not an exaggeration to say that patients regularly suffer and die from this policy.

 

[JacobMcCandles]

As has been pointed out, VIPs likely get worse care, however, they typically don’t take up much of my time since they’re expecting to see multiple specialists as soon as they arrive. I let the specialists be the ones that brown nose while I carry on seeing other patients.

 

[AlmostAnMD]

Functionally speaking that means if you are wealthy or a celebrity and you show up you are treated as a level 1 and placed in resus while getting priority for all laboratory and imaging studies ahead of patients with actual level 1 complaints.

It's hard to even be mad or surprised about this. This is the next logical step when it comes to the overall collapse of Healthcare in this country, catering to where money still flows from. And its not the indigent. The VIPs are going to be the lifeline for some places and without catering to them systems could collapse further.

Fair? No. Still gonna happen? Absolutely.

 

[xaelia]

And yet the exact same thing happens in full socialist healthcare markets where "party members" and their families are given the VIP treatment.

What.

I mean, I work in a public system ED and the VIP action is pretty minimal on our level – some low-key prioritizing of our own staff + family when resources permit. Who are the "party members"?

 

[Boatswain2PA]

Who are the "party members"?

Was referring to "communist party" members, in true socialist systems not a publicly owned hospital in a mixed system.

 

[anonperson]

Why is this a surprise?

I would be shocked if the guy who donated $100 million and helped keep the hospital afloat wasn't given VIP treatment. And I honestly am not mad at that.

We do it all the time.

If the hospital I primarily function out of didn't give me some special access/care, I would be irritated.

I do the same for colleagues routinely.

Had a physician who wanted his wife seen for a consult. Normally I have a 8 week wait. I got her in whenever she wanted even if it required an overbook.

I recently saw a derm for some steroid injections. For follow up he instructed his staff to work me in whenever it was convenient for me.

A physician colleague was admitted and given a private room the entire 7 day stay ( we typically have shared rooms at my hospital).

______________________________________

Cedars does VIP care routinely as does Ronald Reagan ( UCLA). They may not admit it because it looks bad to the public but it happens.

It's the nature of the beast now. If you don't want to deal with it as a physician work somewhere else which is easy to do.

___________________________________

The more damning issue is diverting patients to Bellevue via ambulance. That's shameful especially if you are going to take the non profit designation.

 

[gutonc]

Every hospital in America gives VIP treatment to its board members, physicians, nurses, etc.

Putting notations in Epic is a little much though. I'm surprised the ACGME put the EM residency on probation for this.

Ours used to have (not sure if it still does) a green background to the patient name/DOB/photo in Epic for major donors, just like it has a yellow background for employees, spouses and physicians outside the healthcare system who request it (and a red one for patients who have been banned from the premises by law enforcement/court action). I wasn't surprised to see it, but making it green seemed a little "on the nose".

 

[DeadCactus]

Was referring to "communist party" members, in true socialist systems not a publicly owned hospital in a mixed system.

Some people use communism and socialism to mean specific terms describing economic philosophies and some people might as well just say Solenya because they just need a place filler for a vague, scary boogeyman.

 

[gutonc]

The more damning issue is diverting patients to Bellevue via ambulance. That's shameful especially if you are going to take the non profit designation.

I think this is actually the meat of the issue. I guarantee you that Weill-Cornell, Mt Sinai and Columbia (just to name 3 other high profile NYC hospitals with lots of very wealthy benefactors) have the exact same philosophy and treatment regarding VIP patients. But they don't have Bellevue (or a VA hospital) next door where they can dump the uninsured/homeless/mentally ill who dare to darken their frosted glass doors.

So while the Weill family may get VIP treatment up there on 68th and York, there's a fair to middling chance their ER bed or OR neighbor is one of the "undesirables" that NYU will make sure gets taken straight to Bellevue.

 

[gro2001]

I think this is actually the meat of the issue. I guarantee you that Weill-Cornell, Mt Sinai and Columbia (just to name 3 other high profile NYC hospitals with lots of very wealthy benefactors) have the exact same philosophy and treatment regarding VIP patients. But they don't have Bellevue (or a VA hospital) next door where they can dump the uninsured/homeless/mentally ill who dare to darken their frosted glass doors.

So while the Weill family may get VIP treatment up there on 68th and York, there's a fair to middling chance their ER bed or OR neighbor is one of the "undesirables" that NYU will make sure gets taken straight to Bellevue.

Having trained at all three of these institutions I'd say you are spot on.

To the folks thinking they haven't seen much of it, it can only be because for whatever reason your local VIPs are not coming to your particular hospital. Not a knock on those hospitals at all, but these types tend to favor the university brand names they recognize.

And yes, it's not only an American and/or capitalism thing necessarily. I've worked in places with universal healthcare and there are still VIPs. There are sill powerful, well connected people in society and the hospital leadership has friends and family, etc.

The whole communist party thing is definitely a boogeyman though. While the nomenklatura definitely had easier access to a lot of things the regular soviet citizens did not, the degree of disparity was orders of magnitude less than between the NYU VIP and the Bellevue homeless dude.

 

[Janders]

I have to agree with a lot of prior commenters—
(1) The EMS/EMTALA/DUMPING part of this is utter BS and should be squashed.
(2) VIP care, to some level, is part of every single ED in every country in the world. We each must learn to navigate it.

Thing is, in most reasonable hospitals, you can handle 90% of VIP needs by simply telling the nurse / resource that Mr. XYZ is a VIP b/c of ABC ,and just being nice when you meet them and acknowledge that you heard they are former chair of the board / whatever, and you and the team are going to take great care of them. You don’t actually have to change your standard care, you don’t need to completely break triage, just be nice and give them a blanket. Often they already have some specialist / PCP eagerly waiting to see them / receive a call about their results which makes your job 10x easier. Just grease the wheels a bit. Karma will smile upon you.

Now a system that insists that a VIP come back before an actual sick ESI 2? Screw it. Thankfully, I’ve never had to work somewhere so morally bankrupt.

In my experience, its often the smaller “VIPs” that are actually problem. Former Big Hospital Board member showed up in our ED a couple years ago, registered like a normal patient, happily sat in the WR for a hour, didn’t tell anyone, I recognized his name on the board (I’ve met him socially) and went to see him. Nurse had no idea he was, at least locally speaking, a huge deal. Super nice guy. Praised everyone for taking such care during a pandemic. Wrote a thank you letter afterward to the CEO naming each tech/nurse. I’m lucky to have some souls like this in leadership positions.

Where as sometimes you get the ex-wife of the ex-chief of surgery in the waiting room and its DEFCON-2 if she isn’t in a private room in 5 minutes for a hangnail…

 

[Birdstrike]

"VIPs get special treatment and it's not fair."

That's not how the world is supposed to be. But that is how the world is. And no amount of "courageous" whistleblowing to the ACGME is going to change it.

"VIP" patients are the absolute ******* worst.

 

[miacomet]

I worked in a hospital for over a decade that saws tons of celebrities, politicians, royalty- you name it (one of the amusing things about this article is who they consider a VIP- it's a pretty weak list, NY can be so provincial). But that hospital was set up for it- there was a no wait policy and the facility truly tried to make EVERYONE have a VIP experience. No one ever suffered from poor care because a VIP came in, nor would that have been tolerated.

This is egregious- VIP status was IN THE EMR. Union nurses running wild ordering EMS to not bring in certain patients. I'm not sure if people read the article (it's unpaywalled) but this isn't a text from Sara in fundraising saying Mr. Muckety-Muck is coming in. This is taking extremely ill patients out of a resus room and delaying care for other sick patients, dumping poor patients, violating EMTALA, and destroying physician careers. It's above and beyond.

 

[miacomet]

I have to agree with a lot of prior commenters—
(1) The EMS/EMTALA/DUMPING part of this is utter BS and should be squashed.
(2) VIP care, to some level, is part of every single ED in every country in the world. We each must learn to navigate it.

Thing is, in most reasonable hospitals, you can handle 90% of VIP needs by simply telling the nurse / resource that Mr. XYZ is a VIP b/c of ABC ,and just being nice when you meet them and acknowledge that you heard they are former chair of the board / whatever, and you and the team are going to take great care of them. You don’t actually have to change your standard care, you don’t need to completely break triage, just be nice and give them a blanket. Often they already have some specialist / PCP eagerly waiting to see them / receive a call about their results which makes your job 10x easier. Just grease the wheels a bit. Karma will smile upon you.

Now a system that insists that a VIP come back before an actual sick ESI 2? Screw it. Thankfully, I’ve never had to work somewhere so morally bankrupt.

In my experience, its often the smaller “VIPs” that are actually problem. Former Big Hospital Board member showed up in our ED a couple years ago, registered like a normal patient, happily sat in the WR for a hour, didn’t tell anyone, I recognized his name on the board (I’ve met him socially) and went to see him. Nurse had no idea he was, at least locally speaking, a huge deal. Super nice guy. Praised everyone for taking such care during a pandemic. Wrote a thank you letter afterward to the CEO naming each tech/nurse. I’m lucky to have some souls like this in leadership positions.

Where as sometimes you get the ex-wife of the ex-chief of surgery in the waiting room and its DEFCON-2 if she isn’t in a private room in 5 minutes for a hangnail…

ITA

The rich and famous have no concept of not having their needs met and not having everyone cater to them. If you run a Fortune 500 company, or your father did, are a name brand Kennedy, a top ten pop star, or an internationally known basketball player, you have plenty of people to boss around- you don't need another. These folks aren't the issue most of the time. They are also the people who have expertise, and understand that you, too, have expertise, and they tend IMHO to respect that.

It's the B-listers. The film festival wannabes who "don't you know who I am" heck no I don't. The substitute second string Olympic bobsledder. The CNO relative (nursing relatives are the worst). The neighbor of the orthopod who isn't on call. The wife of the neighborhood dentist. The small town business owner on vacation. All total PITAs who think they know everything, and their wives are worse. I once had a B- lister with some kind of laryngeal issue who wanted to be transferred to Mayo (Mayo is a three to four hour flight from my hospital). Said he had an accepting doc and a plane. I said great, do you have a respiratory therapist for transport?? These are the PITAs, not the super rich.

 

[Kryptocoin]

I think this is actually the meat of the issue. I guarantee you that Weill-Cornell, Mt Sinai and Columbia (just to name 3 other high profile NYC hospitals with lots of very wealthy benefactors) have the exact same philosophy and treatment regarding VIP patients. But they don't have Bellevue (or a VA hospital) next door where they can dump the uninsured/homeless/mentally ill who dare to darken their frosted glass doors.

So while the Weill family may get VIP treatment up there on 68th and York, there's a fair to middling chance their ER bed or OR neighbor is one of the "undesirables" that NYU will make sure gets taken straight to Bellevue.

Didn't Lenox Hill hospital in NYC clear out an entire OB floor/wing when Beyonce came to give birth?

Most elite hospitals have VIP protocols. NYU was probably just more brazen about it and got snitched.

 

[anonperson]

Didn't Lenox Hill hospital in NYC clear out an entire OB floor/wing when Beyonce came to give birth?

Most elite hospitals have VIP protocols. NYU was probably just more brazen about it and got snitched.

Cedars is built on this.

Inside Cedars Sinai's deluxe maternity suite where the stars give birth

From welcome packs with wine to 'secret tunnels', here's how Gwyneth Paltrow, Kourtney Kardashian, Victoria Beckham and other famous mums welcome their babies

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[CoolDoc1729]

Too bad VIPs get objectively worse care where it actually matters, mortality and morbidity. Overtested, overtreated, overadmitted and exposed to a whole host of iatregenic harm.

We workup most ESI 3-5s in the waiting room anymore as I’m sure most of you do .. couple months ago one of the nurses saw his softball buddy was in the waiting room with an ESI 4 complaint and had him as his extra hall patient .. his lab stickers got lost on the way back and the nurse assumed they had already been sent so he had a several hour delay .. I pointed out that this is one of the problems with VIP care and the nurse got really offended .. it was a satisfying moment for sure LOL I hate that crap

 

[miacomet]

Cedars is built on this.

Inside Cedars Sinai's deluxe maternity suite where the stars give birth

From welcome packs with wine to 'secret tunnels', here's how Gwyneth Paltrow, Kourtney Kardashian, Victoria Beckham and other famous mums welcome their babies

www.mirror.co.uk

I can literally imagine nothing worse than being Kim Kardashian (or any other celebrity's) ob. My price would be...high, to say the least.

 

[gutonc]

Didn't Lenox Hill hospital in NYC clear out an entire OB floor/wing when Beyonce came to give birth?

Most elite hospitals have VIP protocols. NYU was probably just more brazen about it and got snitched.

Lenox has an entire VIP tower. I did a couple of rotations there (Surg and Psych) and the only reason I even knew about it is that I was rotating with a PP psychiatrist for a week and one his patients was admitted for something (benign surgical) and he took me to go do a social visit with him (that I have no doubt he billed $500/h for). I was like "what even is this place? I've been in this hospital for 3 months and didn't even know it existed".

I have no doubt they cleared a floor for Beyonce'

 

[Boatswain2PA]

While the nomenklatura definitely had easier access to a lot of things the regular soviet citizens did not, the degree of disparity was orders of magnitude less than between the NYU VIP and the Bellevue homeless dude.

Mostly because the "nomenklatura" doesn't really have a high quality of life compared to American VIPs.

 

[thegenius]

I suspect the issues here have more to do with the patient dumping on Bellevue, which is likely an EMTALA violation. NYC has always had this problem. Very few low income patients seem to end up at the major non-public hospitals and instead are shifted to city hospitals.

VIPs are a part of life for any ED and something we have to deal with. There are so many different kinds, from hospital employees and their family members to major donors to prominent community members. As long as care for both these patients and other patients doesn’t suffer I don’t really see the problem with making things somewhat more comfortable for them. In my hospital the bigger issue has been VIPs trying to have their physicians bypass the ED and direct admit them to the hospital. It got to the point where certain physicians were banned from direct admitting.

What is wrong with direct admission to the hospital?

 

[EctopicFetus]

I worked at a fancy hospital in my prior job. When Obama came to town they held an ICU bed etc etc. I have no issue with this. Similarly Stephen Hawking came to town to give a talk to the local university. Since I was working and we were the favored hospital in this big town (and not the closest to the hotel or where he was giving his talk), I got a 10-15 page pdf with all his medical issues, brands of medical equipment etc ahead of time just in case. Frankly it was impressive.

Is that not VIP treatment as well? He didnt have to come in so he wasnt seen. Ill just say we had a ton of major major celebrities. Yes they all got treated extra special. My hospital didnt dump the homeless and poor. I will say the local HCA hospitals near me now dump the uninsured all around town. it is frankly impressive and explains how these dudes make a profit when all other hospitals are struggling.

 

[emperor tamarin]

This is egregious- VIP status was IN THE EMR. Union nurses running wild ordering EMS to not bring in certain patients. I'm not sure if people read the article (it's unpaywalled) but this isn't a text from Sara in fundraising saying Mr. Muckety-Muck is coming in. This is taking extremely ill patients out of a resus room and delaying care for other sick patients, dumping poor patients, violating EMTALA, and destroying physician careers. It's above and beyond.

This.

 

[johnny_bananas]

What.

I mean, I work in a public system ED and the VIP action is pretty minimal on our level – some low-key prioritizing of our own staff + family when resources permit. Who are the "party members"?

I practice in Canada, and I have never heard of VIP treatment for the rich or "party members".
It is disturbing that U.S. hospitals have to grovel at the feet of wealthy donors - another argument for socialized healthcare.

 

[WilcoWorld]

I can literally imagine nothing worse than being Kim Kardashian (or any other celebrity's) ob. My price would be...high, to say the least.

I mean, you also have to deal with Kanye!

 

[Boatswain2PA]

I practice in Canada, and I have never heard of VIP treatment for the rich or "party members".

Maybe because your VIPs come to America for treatment like Danny Williams famously did.

 

[johnny_bananas]

Maybe because your VIPs come to America for treatment like Danny Williams famously did.

That proves the point that Canada doesn’t have VIP healthcare for the wealthy or "party members", if a very wealthy politician thought it was necessary to go to the U.S. instead of attempting to get VIP treatment in Canada.

Danny Williams decision led to a public outcry, and he ultimately resigned in that same year.

 

[HemeOncHopeful19]

I practice in Canada, and I have never heard of VIP treatment for the rich or "party members".
It is disturbing that U.S. hospitals have to grovel at the feet of wealthy donors - another argument for socialized healthcare.

Since you mention it, I was actually talking to a Canadian recently who tore his ACL skiing. He said it would probably have been 6-12 months to get an MRI and see an Orthopedic surgeon, but he happened to have a friend of a friend of a friend who was the Ortho secretary and could bump him up the waiting list. Was he just completely full of it?

He was not complaining about this btw, just explaining how it worked.

 

[NYEMMED]

I practice in Canada, and I have never heard of VIP treatment for the rich or "party members".
It is disturbing that U.S. hospitals have to grovel at the feet of wealthy donors - another argument for socialized healthcare.

It happens all the time in Canada too. If you know somebody you go to the top of the list. The have nots wait months to years for care

&amp#039;We know everyoneâs not equal&amp#039;: Queue-jumping probe looks at patients who receive VIP treatment

A wealthy patron cancelled his fast-tracked colonoscopy so he could go to the Calgary Stampede â and was put back near the front of the line

nationalpost.com

Canada's universal healthcare may not be so universal after all

Canada's universal healthcare may not be so universal after all

www.latimes.com

 

[johnny_bananas]

Since you mention it, I was actually talking to a Canadian recently who tore his ACL skiing. He said it would probably have been 6-12 months to get an MRI and see an Orthopedic surgeon, but he happened to have a friend of a friend of a friend who was the Ortho secretary and could bump him up the waiting list. Was he just completely full of it?

He was not complaining about this btw, just explaining how it worked.

It's certainly possible that the Ortho surgeon saw him quicker as a favour to the secretary. Favours for friends happens from time to time. Though from the story I don't know how he would have gotten an MRI quicker that would be challenging to do.