I just finished reading a message concerning the elimination of the ER at Carson Tahoe Hospital. What I see as a problem are people who are using the current ER as an urgent care.
Instead of eliminating the ER, those who require urgent care services need to be properly advised where to go to get those type of services.
Those who need urgent care rather than ER services are cared for like everyone who enters the ER, while those who actually need the ER services are put in a line behind all the others who should be directed elsewhere.
For instance, my husband’s appendix ruptured. He sat in the waiting room for hours, and then in the exam room for hours.
Trying to care for everyone as one group doesn’t work.
There is a need for an ER; another example is I fell and hit my head, and because I’m on blood thinners, I had to be seen. I went to an urgent care and was advised I had to go to the ER because of my age.
It’s not going to do me much good in the future to have no close ER to go to.
There has to be an ER for people who need that service, and having to drive to Reno or Gardnerville does not serve the residents of this community.
Melinda Cash, Carson Valley
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