Case study
WINTER 2014: CASE STUDY
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Melanie Haehnel
6620361
COMM 225
Professor Sharma
Q1: Discuss the major reasons for long wait times in emergency rooms, hospitals, and walk-‐in clinics? [300-‐400 words].
One of the major reasons patients are experiencing a longer wait time in hospitals is largely caused by a unregulated screening process of each patient stepping through hospital doors. This is mostly seen in cases of elderly patients that have been diagnosed with dementia. These patients enter the hospital, and upon arrival aren’t properly investigated and end up taking up hospital beds, and doctors that do not provide them with the care that they need. In some cases these patients require a psychologist or geriatric medicine, and could even benefit more from home-care than the care provided in the hospital. Ageism has been reprehended as the cause of such inefficient processes and are found that elderly patients aren't offered the same thorough inspection as the younger generations.
In many cases, the number of patients that can be served in a given time is limited, and this process becomes even more limited when patients overstay their expected welcome. With a population that consists mostly of ageing individuals, a system that doesn't efficiently screen the patients or by discharging the patients before providing them with the proper medicine or psychological help, results in recurring visits and longer stays, slowing down the already limited time process.
All though these medical centres may have the capacity to serve more than then number of patients arriving, the length of time caused by inefficient processes of elderly patients is one cause of longer wait times. The second possibility of longer wait times is an increase in arrival rates caused by improper diagnosis of patients experiencing dementia who
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Melanie Haehnel
6620361
COMM 225
Professor Sharma
Q1: Discuss the major reasons for long wait times in emergency rooms, hospitals, and walk-‐in clinics? [300-‐400 words].
One of the major reasons patients are experiencing a longer wait time in hospitals is largely caused by a unregulated screening process of each patient stepping through hospital doors. This is mostly seen in cases of elderly patients that have been diagnosed with dementia. These patients enter the hospital, and upon arrival aren’t properly investigated and end up taking up hospital beds, and doctors that do not provide them with the care that they need. In some cases these patients require a psychologist or geriatric medicine, and could even benefit more from home-care than the care provided in the hospital. Ageism has been reprehended as the cause of such inefficient processes and are found that elderly patients aren't offered the same thorough inspection as the younger generations.
In many cases, the number of patients that can be served in a given time is limited, and this process becomes even more limited when patients overstay their expected welcome. With a population that consists mostly of ageing individuals, a system that doesn't efficiently screen the patients or by discharging the patients before providing them with the proper medicine or psychological help, results in recurring visits and longer stays, slowing down the already limited time process.
All though these medical centres may have the capacity to serve more than then number of patients arriving, the length of time caused by inefficient processes of elderly patients is one cause of longer wait times. The second possibility of longer wait times is an increase in arrival rates caused by improper diagnosis of patients experiencing dementia who