An elderly woman got injured in the lobby of a hospital. Instead of treating her injuries, the hospital staff told her to call an ambulance. The hospital is now saying that the staff was confused about health insurance coverage. This isn’t the first time the hospital has behaved this way.
Doreen Wallace is 82 years old. She was leaving the Greater Niagara General Hospital on October 8, 2011, with her son. The reason she was at the hospital was to visit her husband, who was dying. She slipped and fell while she was in the hospital’s lobby. The fall caused her to break her hip. Doreen already had an broken arm, from a previous fall.
Obviously, she was inside a hospital when this accident occurred. One would think that hospital staff would be able to act quickly, and assist her into the emergency room, (which was only about 50 yards away from where she lay). Unfortunately, that is not what happened at all.
Instead, she ended up lying on the floor of the hospital lobby for about 30 minutes. People who entered the lobby stopped to stare at her as she lay face down on a metal grate. Her previously broken arm had been slashed. A security guard called for help, but the staff of the hospital refused to treat her until paramedics arrived.
This is not how things should have been handled. The supervisor of the Niagara Health System has since explained that the reason why this happened is because of a “communication problem” among the staff. Dr. Kevin Smith said that when something like this occurs, the staff is supposed to call the emergency room, not an ambulance. There is a code that should be used that will bring staff to immediately help a person who became injured while at the hospital.
So, why did the staff insist on waiting for an ambulance to be called? The excuse being given is that they were following an “old rule”. This isn’t the first time that this type of situation has happened at this particular hospital. Some people who were in the hospital’s parking lot were refused treatment, and told to call an ambulance, even though their injuries were severe.
It seems that the staff was under the impression that the treatment given to people who are outside of the hospital, (like in the parking lot, or in the lobby), would not be covered by health insurance. I’m not sure if the staff were more concerned about the medical bills the injured person would be stuck paying out of pocket for, or if the real concern was that the hospital would be “stuck” paying those bills. Not all health insurance plans cover the cost of an ambulance ride.
In any case, Doreen Wallace wants an apology from the Niagara Health Systems for what happened to her. They say that they have apologized, but she says she hasn’t received an apology yet.
Image by Lee Maguire on Flickr