unnecessary medical costs in the ED

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Imagine you’re in the emergency room waiting to get your blood drawn, you’re already nervous because you do not like needles. You hear a knock on the door with an announcement that “A” the phlebotomist is here to draw your blood. You kindly tell her to enter. As she walks through the door you notice an array of colorful tubes with labels on them with your name. Don’t you wonder why all those are for you, and only you? The emergency room in any hospital is usually the busiest department; many people are entering for treatment while many are being discharged. Hospitals are always finding ways to cut their budget to save on money, whether it is cutting costs on treatments, medications, technology, or taking pay cuts. What a lot of people do not realize is that when they go to the emergency room you may be paying for something that you knew nothing about. Have you ever wondered what all these expenses were on your bills? Cynthia Seaver, CCSSBB, CLE, BSMPH, BSC, and Alexis J. Gray, MT (ASCP), BSM touch base on a specific extra cost in their article. In this essay, I will summarize all part of Seaver, and Gray’s observations, and then respond with my thoughts on why I feel this is absurd. Seaver and Gray wrote an article “Drawing extra blood tubes in the ED re-examining a common practice,” published in Medical Laboratory Observer in December 2012, saying that extra tubes of blood are being drawn each day because it is believed that patients will need a follow up that will require more blood tests, or they may need additional testing. Seaver and Gray observed a laboratory staff in a Midwest hospital to see their process. As they were observing they raised questions of their own “How many extra tubes were arriving the laboratory? How ma... ... middle of paper ... ...hey were saving patients the hassle of having more than one poke for blood until they realized what it was costing them and their patients. The expenses rose above two-hundred thousand dollars a year, and the only thing it was really doing for the patients was hurting their bank accounts. Staff came to a reasonable consensus that has seemed to work in favor for all, that has impacted medical costs on both sides. Although they may have come to a consensus, I personally still am baffled by how much money has been wasted on this issue. In my experience I have seen test results mixed up and patients being confused. Once I have read this article, it opened my eyes. Have you ever been told you have something and don’t?, or vice versa? If you have don’t you think you have the right to know why? Ask questions, take control. It’s your body, your life, and you have the right!

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