Thursday, 16 October 2008
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Hospitals Handing Out Prescriptions for Common Viruses, Why?
This post was submitted by RamblingAngels@xanga
My brother went to the emergency room the other day. We had him in the hospital for 7 hours and he was given morphine, then left with three prescriptions including a bottle of painkillers. His diagnosis was something we like to call: the common virus. There’s no need to give him all this medication for something so small. It's sad to see someone going through such a thing when they could be safe at home, drinking soup and throwing up once in a while.
Do you think drugs are needed for visits such as the common virus?
Why are hospitals so intent on sending us home with drugs?
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Comments (15)
I was actually just discussing this with my mom who is a nurse the other day...it outrages me that meds are handed out like candy. I think I might even blog about it. There are necessary times and unnecessary times. At most send him home with a higher dose of Acetomenophine...but I'm not game with the excessiveness of meds these days.
I've gotten that diagnosis before. I got the meds for free because of my health plan, and I stopped taking them after the first dose. They didn't make me feel better, and I don't like taking pills unless I HAVE to.
I think they give drugs out because a lot of people will get angry if you go in and they say "go home and rest". Like they wasted their time.
yes i think they hand them out way to easily. I call it the "easy fix."
they dont know how to help with out giving a drug.
How many of the drugs are placebos?
To defeat virus's, eat oranges and get your body temp higher or lower to denature the proteins in the virus (yay for biology and chemistry classes!)
I'm a big fan of taking as many advil/tylenol as needed to get rid of a pesky headache but getting prescriptioned meds is a different story. I have to be super sick (aka: my body won't be able to fight off the infection...ever) for me to take prescrip. meds. Or, if I'm contagious. As much as I'd like to do things the natural way (most of the time) there's no need to subject others :)
Why'd he go to the ER for something he could just as easily have stayed home and had soup for?
Ideally people don't go to the hospital for little common viruses that don't necessitate serious medication. But ER's don't just send you home empty-handed.. Just because they prescribe them doesn't mean you have to fill out the prescription.
...they gave him morphine for the COMMON COLD?!
T_T
i got accused of being a drug addict when i was rushed to the ER with severe severe pain from organ failure and they didn't give me any painkillers so i asked for some. i wish i went to the same hospital as your brother!
I think willow_ann pretty said the first part of what I was thinking - people get upset & angry if they come in and don't get a prescription. There's a lot of pressure on providers to always be sure to address patients' pain.
Also, you figure that most people won't come into the ER with a virus unless they are really in some major distress over their symptoms, so you give them things to help with their symptoms.
But that said, I wish that health classes and other venues would work to educate people on viruses and the fact that you don't need a bunch of drugs for your standard viral infection.
don't even get me started on this one. Yes, it's crazy the way they hand out antibiotics for common illnesses, even in the face of the warnings from epidemiologists about unintentionally encouraging super-bugs like MRSA and multiple drug resistant tuberculosis.
And people who don't finish a complete course of antibiotics, but stop taking the med as soon as they feel better; there's another group entry for the darwin awards!
Pain killers? They're nutty with those, too. Hand them out like candy instead of pursuing a thorough diagnosis one time, and question you about drug seeking behavior the next.
i never take medicine at all unless it's necessary, like for the dentist or a surgery.
doctors throw medicine around too often and i've read because they get endorsed from drug companies, and i wouldn't necessarily doubt it.
I think it is really a catch 22 of a problem with our society. People go to the emergency room because they need help. They would throw a fit if the nurses/docs told them they had a cold just go home and rest and drink orange juice! On the other hand, I am sure there are people who go to the ER just because they know they can get pills to feed their addiction (or sell on the streets).
For the most part, I think we have become a nation of whiners and sissies. (Obviously, the people on here do not wish to take meds unless necessary, but I dont believe that of the general population) So until we (as a country) can change our mentality about what is bearable and what isnt, people will bounce around until they get what they want.
(And I think much of this started with the drug commercials so that people would go ask about the drugs. Restless Leg Syndrome? I bet I could get diagnosed with that! People watch the commercials and think 'oh, I have that! Maybe that drug will help me...' but if it werent for the commercial, they would have lived life and been fine.)
nah, I'm a big fan of healthy diet will cure all. I even had a surgery 4 months ago on my shoulder but taking the medicine didn't really help me "cope with the pain." It just ended up knocking me out at weird hours of the day. I'd rather deal with the pain and know my limitation than flood my body with all sorts of chemicals.
I do however agree with things like antibiotics. Gotta love those because they'll knock out anything. I had dysentery once and those antibiotics really saved me.
WELL WHY DID YOUR BROTHER GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM AT ALL?
Unfortunately for me, and for immuno supressed people we HAVE to be on antibiotics and it sucks.
I had what I thought were "allergies" and it turns out I had a cold, which turned into the flu, which turned into Bronchidis. I had this for 3 weeks, and because I'm an idiot and actually listened to other people. I was coughing up green stuff, and went to the dr. he took an X-ray of my lungs, and I had bronchidis. UGH!
I will NOT do that again!!
But for "normal" people, hahah yeah you guys should just drink soup and puke!! Shame shame!! But I still wish that I could be a normal person and just sit there popping Tylenol Cold and Flu instead of taking my regular Tylenol and Benadryl and screaming in pain! LOL!!
hospitals are stupid and they just prescribe something so you could get out of their way and shut up... they honestly don't care as long as they get their paycheck...