Going to the emergency room will be problematic with an epidemic.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Where do sick people with communicable diseases cluster? In emergency rooms. Every time I am forced to bring an elderly parent to the ER (they much prefer getting sick on weekends and that is where their GP sends them) they invariably get sick with something other than what they went in for.

Since you always wait in an ER anyway unless you are profusely bleeding from every orifice, I can't see why people can't call and be given a 1/2 hour time window for an appointment just to lessen some of the risk.

I'm sure there are actual protocols. Anyone know what they are?

[rucky]

1. Is this potentially fatal to anyone who contracts it?

or mostly kids, the elderly and the already sick?

[bananas]

2. "Most of Mexico's dead were young, healthy adults"

"Most of Mexico's dead were young, healthy adults, and none were over 60 or under 3 years old, the World Health Organization said."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/americas/26mexico.html

[Duer 157099]

6. Jeez, I never thought I'd say this but thank god I'm not a young healthy adult! n/t

[Mike 03]

3. Depending on how deadly the disease is, the LAST PLACE IN THE WORLD you'd want to

go is an ER, or a doctor's office for that matter, unless you were in dire need of treatment.

The smart thing to do is never contract the illness in the first place. If we actually experience a pandemic or epidemic, it will be necessary for everyone possible to remain in his or her home for a period of weeks.

[uppityperson]

4. One of the problems with scheduling time in ER, or even clinic, is the nature of emergencies

Sometimes people come in with a simply issue, sometimes, often, it is more complicated. It is difficult to be able to predict how someone will be, what time and resources they will take.

That said, if there is an epidemic, I am sure clinics will be open later and on weekends so people won't have to just cluster at the ER. There will probably be other places open to see sick people, like a gymnasium, or a big meeting area, since clinics will be overwhelmed. Or else people will be advised to just stay home.

[walkaway]

5. Around here, in Northern New Jersey, it's a nightmare on a slow day.

The last time I went to the emergency room with a broken leg and a ruptured patella tendon I waited three hours before they signed me in and another two hours to see a doctor. I had a leg xray, a pain killer, a pair of crutches and a knee immobilizer and was told to call a specialist when I got home. It too over nine hours.

If there is a flu epidemic....we are doomed!!!!!!!!!!!

[louis-t]

9. Yes, but if we had socialized medicine you'd have to wait

3 weeks to see a specialist......oh, wait, you already do.:eyes:

[frogcycle]

7. While this could be seen as gaming the system...

if your elderly parent is really sick and really needs to get urgent care, call an ambulance. They wheel them in the back door on a gurney, presumably straight to an exam room. Or, worst case, parked in a hall awaiting a room freeing up, but not sitting in the jam-packed waiting room full of coughing and sneezing sick people.

If you weren't available to transport them, and they don't drive, they'd have to call an ambulance, right? A cabbie would not assist them to and from the car. Be unavailable.

[Fumesucker]

8. Yep, my family did just that with an elderly relative recently..

Called the ambulance because she is not physically up to a multi hour wait to be seen at the ER.

Come in on the ambulance, get immediate attention..

[louis-t]

10. Been there. I was in a head-on collision during an outbreak

of flu in 2000. They had to find an ER that wasn't full. They strapped me to a backboard for an hour. They x-rayed the wrong knee, gave me a script for pain pills, stood there and glared at me while I wracked my stunned brain to remember ANYONE'S number, and shoved me down the ramp to wait outside in 10 deg. temps for a ride home.