Twice in the past two weeks I went to see a doctor at my primary care office. I first went in with severe back pain. Instead of taking an x-ray, and then putting me on pain killers and on an anti-inflammatory, my doctor wants to rule out Meningitis. I don't have symptoms for the disease that would include a significant high fever, but I did have neck pain and a headache. So for the lumbar puncture, they had to send me to the ER for everything. I was not treated at the primary care office. This was on 4/27 this month.
They ended up not doing a lumbar puncture at all in the hospital and instead, a simple blood test. They put me on Oxycodone and since it didn't really relieve my pain, they decided to admit me to the Hospital (where they added a muscle relaxer, neurotin, and valium). I then spent the next 3 days as an inpatient waiting a full day to take an MRI, receive the results, and wait another day to meet with an inpatient physical therapist to get evaluated. It turns out just to be muscle pain, as I originally thought and I was about to be released. This all could have been done as an outpatient.
But instead, I got a high fever and got pneumonia which I caught from staying as an inpatient in the hospital. I am released 2 days later, and receive an antibiotic. Two days after that, I get pharyngitis. I go back to the primary care office, Instead of taking a throat culture, puting me on a liquid painkiller and antibiotics, he sends me back to the ER. They do exactly that in the ER and they keep me overnight.
Doctors in primary care offices seem to be sending more and more patients to the ER for things they can take care of in their offices, because they want to rule out something more dangerous. Is this absolutely necessary for medical care?
