Dear Editor:
With all the discussion about the American health care system during this presidential campaign, it is necessary to look at some ‘local’ healthcare, or lack of such.
It is evident that our own St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken has taken the ‘care’ out of healthcare, something made apparent to me during a visit to their emergency room last spring. I will not mention specific names to protect individual privacy.
For starters, there was no nurse in the admittance area. After signing in, I had to wait over an hour to be admitted, even though there was one other patient there at most.
When finally admitted, both the doctor and nurses seemed ‘disinterested’ in addressing my needs, even though I was suffering from high fever, vomiting, rapid pulse and bronchial congestion. In fact, the doctor on duty said something like “Why did you come here anyway? Don’t you have a family doctor to go to!” For the record, it was the middle of the night and visiting a ‘family doctor’ was not an option at the moment. While the St. Mary ‘doctor’ sat cozily with the nurses, I was put in an extremely cold triage room and had to wait very long before he examined me. I sincerely hope that all staff of St. Mary’s are not of the same mindset as those in the ER.
That is not the worst part. For the exam, which lasted 10 minutes at most, I was charged close to $600! Such high costs and poor service are a bad combination, and I urge this community and state officials to explain why a simple visit to the ER can be so expensive! Unfortunately for many Americans, even those who are insured, insurance plans don’t always cover emergency room costs, even though the ER is of vital necessity to the public well-being.
Wake up America! We do have a health care problem, our system is not world-class and it is time for change. Name withheld