Know “When To Make the Right Call”: A Doctor’s Perspective

When you need medical attention, what do you do? Where should you get help?  Should I go to the Emergency Department or can my primary care doctor handle this problem?  As an internal medicine doctor, I often come across patients who are struggling with these same questions. 

   

A new community campaign called “MakeTheRightCall” can help you answer these questions.  “MakeTheRightCall” campaign helps to educate you on how to get the best quality and lowest cost care when you have a primary care physician that knows you.  It also helps you learn when you may need to go to the Emergency Department or when your primary care physician can take care of your medical need.  By contacting your doctor, they can help ensure you get the right care, at the right time, from the right place. 

Although the Emergency Department is open 24/7, it’s a place to take care of life-threatening emergencies. 

Here are some of the reasons why someone should go to the Emergency Department:

• Loss of consciousness.
• Pressure, fullness, squeezing, burning or pain in the center of the chest
• Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm or leg on one side of the body; sudden loss of vision or speech
• Severe shortness of breath.
• Bleeding that does not stop after 10 minutes of direct pressure.
• Sudden, severe pain.
• A major injury, such as a head trauma.
• Coughing up or vomiting blood.
• Severe or persistent vomiting.
• Suicidal or homicidal feelings.

When you choose to “MakeTheRightCall”, it not only helps you but also helps others.  When other people misuse the Emergency Department, it drives up overall health care costs.  It also prevents Emergency Departments from tending to true medical emergencies as quickly as they can. Non-emergencies make the wait time longer for all patients in the Emergency Department.    It also costs you and your family more and takes longer than if you went to your primary care physician.  Your primary care physician will know you better than anyone in the Emergency Department too, so you won’t have to provide a lot of information about your medical history.  Isn’t that nice to hear?

The Health Collaborative, a local non-profit organization, felt that improper use of the Emergency Department was so important that it created a whole campaign around this.  To learn more, you can check out the two “MakeTheRightCall” videos MakeTheRightCall: When you need medical attention who do you call?  and MakeTheRightCall: Know the Difference.

I know that it can sometimes be difficult to decide where to go when you need medical care.  Thankfully, there are resources that can help you “MakeTheRightCall”.  Please be sure to use the Emergency Department for life-threatening emergencies.  If you are looking for a primary care physician, you can find one at http://yourhealthmatters.org/.

Stay well,

Dr. Shivani Jindal, MPH, MD

Chief Resident of Quality and Safety

Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center

The Impact of the "MakeTheRightCall" Initiative

Sometimes the initiatives we are working on at the Health Collaborative hit close to home.  Earlier this summer I was enjoying a Saturday evening at a park with some friends when I took a misstep off a curb. That led to an embarrassing, slow motion tumble followed by an intense pain in my right ankle.  After I dusted off my pride, I realized the bruising and swelling was almost instant.  Not fun or pretty.

My friends offered to take me to the emergency room but as I thought about it, I realized this wasn't an emergency. There was nothing even potentially life threatening about my ankle turning shades of blue. I could hobble around so I was confident nothing was broken and in danger of being made worse.  The biggest issue was pain, and I could ice, elevate, and take Naproxen to get through the night.  I decided to spend the evening being as comfortable as possible at home and let the Emergency Department staff worry about the real emergencies.  I knew that in the morning, if I felt I needed treatment, I could call my primary care doctor and find out what he recommended.  

I felt pretty smart.  Not only was my Saturday evening at home much more peaceful than it would have been in the emergency room, but I’m sure I saved myself hundreds of dollars I would have billed just to be seen by an emergency physician.  My ankle is healing slowly but surely and I know I made the right call.

Laura Randall

In addition to being a clumsy walker, Laura Randall is the Director of Communications at the Health Collaborative.