Community Trends (Jenessa Lance)

Jenessa Lance, Community Trends

I spoke with Jeremy Norton, who is a practicing RN. He works at an Emergency Department in Ogden, UT. Some of the community trends that he sees in his health care facility are abused health network, heart disease, diabetes, lack of health insurance, and misunderstanding of health care networks.

Jeremy stated that people abuse the health care network by taking advantage of the Emergency Department. It is required by law that Doctors in the ER see patients no matter what their financial status or whether or not they have insurance. People can have huge fines in the hospital or at a clinic and they can still come to the ER and know that they will be seen. Although this is beneficial to some patients, most patients merely take advantage of this law by using the ER as their primary care facility instead of a clinic, where their care would be more appropriately handled.

Jeremy also sees an increase in the amount of heart disease cases that come into the ER. Heart disease and stroke are top killers in Utah, and in the U.S. Diabetes, tobacco use, lack of exercise, and inadequate fruit and vegetable intake are all risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Symptoms mainly include angina, shortness of breath, and sweating. Unfortunately, angina, which is pain in the chest, is not universal and can be demonstrated differently with each person.

Another community trend is diabetes. Jeremy often sees the effect of inadequate care of diabetes, seeing as he works in the ER. Most patients have either lost control of their diabetes, or they have failed to regulate it, causing other major health issues. Although genetics does play a role in diabetes, lifestyle contributes to most cases of the disease. With the increase in obesity levels in Utah and in the United States, diabetes has risen considerably.

            Another community trend is the lack of health insurance. You don’t have to have health insurance to be seen at the ER. A lot of people go to the ER because they will be admitted even if they don’t have insurance. With the Affordable Health Care Act, these people will be forced to buy insurance. However, Jeremy predicts that even though these people can be seen at the clinic, they don’t have a primary care doctor that they know and trust, so they will probably continue to go to the ER for things such as colds.

            Continuing on that thought is another community trend, misunderstanding of health care networks. When the new Health Care Act will come into play, people will still misunderstand health care networks. Even though they have insurance, they still go to the ER for minor illnesses because they don’t understand that they should go to a clinic or a doctor’s office instead. A lot of people misunderstand the purpose of the Emergency Department. People might come in for chills or headaches, when they really should go to the clinic. This community trend could be improved upon by public education.