Parkland Hospital In Dallas, Texas, cheating the Federal Govt and providing Substandard Care to Indigent! Dallas, Texas

 Parkland could care less about what color you are - they are a TRAUMA hospital!!! I had to wait with a BLACK friend of mine there when she was suffering from gallstones and we were not seen for 12 hours! If you visit an ER with a cold, fever, sore throat etc etc you are going to have to WAIT!  During our wait, one burn victim was airlifted in, lots of stabbings and gun shot victims came through and police bringing in people they had arrested for treatment.  Grow up - Texas is about as racist as any other state. Stop the race card crap - it is getting real old

Apparently you are not dead, so I am wondering what was the problem?  Was it a sore throat perhaps?  Just maybe the Dr can look in your throat and knows what a sore throat looks like.  

I'm also curious how you have money to buy a computer and pay for internet service to post this comment? 

As a tax payer, it amazes me to see people that can afford a cell phone, cable TV, Internet, and go to restaurants two or three times a week, then call themselves too poor to afford insurance. 

The problem with most people is they don't want to afford healthcare insurance.  Instead of paying $200 a month for insurance, you'd rather spend it on luxury items, it's not like you'll ever get sick anyway....

You went to the hospital, you saw a Dr, you didn't pay a penny, and you're still crying.  If you had been having a heart attack, or been shot, they would have done what it takes to fix you up and you know they would have.  You had a sore throat, you saw a DR and are pissed because you spent a few hours in the waiting room while they took care of people that were in need of more urgent care. 

What is wrong with people that think they should sit on their butts and expect others to cater to their every desire.  You lost all respect from me when you called Repubicans republicCONs.  Really?  You obviously hate people that won't give you a handout. The sad thing is there are millions just like you screaming racism and everything else trying to get something for free.  If you spent as much energy trying to better yourself, you might become an asset to this country instead of a liability.

Unfortunately, u're missing the point. I too am a part of the Parkland program atheirs not easy to navigate. When thou sign up for the program, they don't tell you that it will be 6 or 8 months before you -- as a new patient -- can be seen for the very first time. 

Then when you're sick and call in to make an appointment, that's when they tell you -- at least this happened in my case. I suffer from severe asthma and explained this when I called in february to make my appointment. I was essentially told 'that's too bad, you still have to wait. Otherwise you have to go to parkland ER. I have NO income and dont get unemployment or any other kind of financial assistance (which is why i was approved for the program). So why go to ER and make a bill I can't pay? I can barely scrape together money for the clinic visit. Where would I get he extra money to pay the bill? The person the phone said: well just have 'em bill you later?'

Really? And when the bill comes how will I pay it? Since getting on the hospital program in january i havent been abke to find work.

Is Parkland or Dallas County hoping that by making it a long wait that people will just die? 

I know that people with and without insurance have to wait long hours to be seen at Parkland. The problem is, this shouldnt be the case, period!!! No one should have to wait 10 or 12 hours to seen, let alone 6 to 8 months. The system needs to be fixed for everyone. 

Hopefully, I'll eventually get the medical treatment I need, that is if I don't die before then.

Jack, are you the OP? I recall it was a woman, but maybe I'm wrong.

Stacey is right, and the OP's post reflects one of the many things wrong with our health care system. Yes, the wait in the ER is long, because it takes time to evaluate the true emergencies that come in: gunshots, heart attacks, strokes, etc.  And the problem isn't limited to Texas, or the uninsured. My mother has excellent insurance and when I took her to the hospital when she had a stroke there was STILL a wait. I have no insurance and my doctors all require payment at the time of service.

I just read a report from Princeton college that stated their was a high degree of bias medical doctors held towards blacks.

I had occasion to use an ER once when I thought I had appendicitis. The waiting room was packed, and the patients were predominately black. This was a racially diverse community with only one hospital. A few minutes after I arrived, a teenage girl arrived and she was obviously in greater distress than I or anyone else in the room. She was crying and vomiting. We were the only two white women in the room.  We both waited over 8 hours while all the others were seen.  I was extremely pissed because the majority of them seemed to have arrived in groups and they were eating McDonalds, talking and laughing and not a single one of them appeared to be ill.  I can only assume they used the ER because they had no insurance or couldn't afford to go to the urgent care or a doctor. So perhaps the biased doctors you refer to have had experience with black patients who utilize the ER unnecessarily.

To the OP: sounds like strep (but I am not a doctor). There is no reason to suspect a thyroid problem when you present with a fever that indicates infection. It takes all of two seconds for a doctor to look in your throat, see the white crap in the back and declare strep or tonsillitis. What did it turn out to be?

BTW: next time you are demanding a medical test, think about how much it costs to purchase and maintain that equipment, pay the techs who operate them, the radiologist or pathologist who has to interpret the results, the ER doc who treats you, the nurses who provide hands-on care, the admin staff, and janitorial staff, etc. It's not cheap! I think the doctors are right to avoid unnecessary tests and procedures.

Maybe it's because I'm black that I can't find a doctor to work with me. I've called dozens of doctors and they ALL SAY that I have to "PAY ON THE SPOT" or else they can't assist me. Maybe you are white. I just read a report from Princeton college that stated their was a high degree of bias medical doctors held towards blacks.

Maybe that's it.

And for your information Parkland has an URGENT CARE CLINIC that serves as a doctors office. It is TOTALLY SEPARATED from the emergency room. They get reimbursed by the county AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for providing medical treatment to the poor.

And yes the wait was 13 hours. It stays packed.

But again by point STILL STANDS which is I didn't get GOOD CARE. So YOU SIR are the IDIOT!

You know this is Texas which is known for racism. Instead of working hard to correct this you redneck idiots scream "just leave" all the d**n time. Why not scream for once "stay and fight! Make it fair".

You dumb imbecile.

Parkland is a Level I Trauma Center therefore they are going to treat those who are in need of immediate medical care instead of someone who has the flu/cold/strep throat.  I have never heard of a physician in the Dallas area who refused to treat a patient without a "few grand" up from unless it was for a specific procedure.

I lost my job after 13 1/2 years and my insurance yet my Physician works with me.  There are lots of clinics in the Dallas Area that treat low cost/uninsured people just do a search!  You b***h about the wait time - maybe it was because the DRs were treating a heart attack victim, a person who was burned or shot.  Parkland is NON profit therefore is paid with the taxes of people like ME!! How do you in this day and age think you were left to DIE because you had strep???? Any Hospital will admit you regardless of your lack of insurance - it is the LAW!

If you HATE all the DRs in the area then MOVE!!