Jeanette Isabelle made some points in a post and got me thinking... first, hope your mom is ok.

This comes from my experience as a 30 (plus) year road medic....
Take with a grain of salt..... AVOID them.
The ones in our area are basically worthless. Ours do also depend on which 'docs' are in that days. I've seen some write scripts for the respiratory infection. Others won't. I've seen people with OBVIOUS upper respiratory infections being sent by ambulance (often mine) to the ER because 'It's a difficulty breathing'! The docs (staff) scare the crap out of people saying stuff like.... Oh you can't drive because if something happens to you.....

Some REAL advice to everyone is this....

DON'T...and I MEAN DON'T!!! go to them if you are having:

Chest pain (pain, pressure, tightness, squeezing, heaviness, a weight on your chest- or any strange or different feeling in your chest).

Breathing trouble of ANY kind. Even if you KNOW it is 'your asthma' or an upper respiratory infection that you KNOW you need antibiotics for.

General weakness (or weakness in one area or side of your body).

Stomach pain (even if you KNOW it is food poisoning).

ALL of these a 95% of the time sent out by ambulance to the ER.

I tell our vets not to go to OUR local VA clinic if they have these things either because the VA docs also send them out for these things. Got into (and won) and 'argument' with a VA doc who insisted the vet should go to them first because the clinic can test for Troponin (heart enzyme indicating real heart damage) and if they don't have the Troponin, "He saved them an unnecessary ER trip and bill." To which I said if they DO have it, you've just caused a delay in a true heart emergency...Funny how they didn't want to speak with me after that...

When in doubt.... ER. Either by ambulance or on your own....but ER.

Her knees will be sore for a while; otherwise, she's okay.

Jeanette Isabelle

I agree. Isn't that why they are called emergency rooms??

Over the years, I have taken complete strangers, close friends, family members, and myself to the local ER, everywhere from Washington DC, to South Dakota, Arizona, and California. Definitive, professional care every time.

Well, time was before the EMTALA became law in 1986, things were a bit better, EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) basically dictated that any time someone shows up to an emergency room, you have to "treat" or "Stabilize" a patient.

It had the ostensible rational of intending to prevent Medicare-participating hospitals with dedicated emergency departments from refusing to treat people based on their insurance status or ability to pay.

Great social program with a great idea, and lots of unintended consequences.

IT used to be, (back in the 50's and early 60's) that people could actually pay their Emergency room bill. Then, when Medicare came about in the mid 60's and was improved upon over the years, things got worse. Hospital costs shot up, reimbursements went down and hospitals responded.

In 1986 the EMTALA law was passed that required ER's to treat anyone that showed up, irregardless to pay. (I am not going to address the moral aspects of the practice.)

The short version, today, many hospitals will not even put stitches in a serious cut. They will refer you to "your regular physician," after having cleaned and dressing the wound.

The process of using the ER for treatment has succumbed to the law of unintended consequences, and now, unless you have insurance, you get what amounts to first aid and a few antibiotics. . .

I have NEVER seen an ER refuse to suture someone....that wasn't a 'speciality' like a lip or ear (which is usually plastic surgery) unless the patient was good with it. WOW. Remind me not to get hurt by you... LOL.

I had not until about two years ago when my father managed to give himself a nasty hand wound while doing yard work. They cleaned the wound, and applied tape closures with a referral.

Had it not been 6:30 in the evening when the injury occured, I would have taken him directly to his physician, but due to the lateness of the hour, it was not an option. Worse was the fact that it was 4 hours before we walked out of the ER at a major hospital that evening.

The wound did not require any plastic work, just 8 sutures, and some antibiotics.

For about 80% of the cases, a trip to the ER these days seems to be nothing but a huge expense, waste of several hours and an exercise in frustration.

My experience with ER is fairly good. I had to get there a couple of times.
One was a severed tendon on the pinky, the other was a 3 inch cut in the palm that happened to sever a nerve.
In both cases I had a surgeon who started his shift less than two hours before I came in. Both admired how sharp the blade must have been for such a clean cut. They also did a very fine job. I regained full mobility with the severed tendon. Most of the function of the severed nerve is back too.
I also managed to get a scratch from a broken glass pane. It merely damaged skin and required only 6 stiches.
In all cases I had to wait less than an hour to see the doctor.
The nurses were reasonably pretty and had a good sense of black humor.