James Mullis

Review of Coliseum Medical Center

I took my wife to the emergency room at the Colise...

I took my wife to the emergency room at the Coliseum Drive location. She was experiencing severe pain in her right ear and jaw. She was admitted quickly and then 15 minutes after being placed in a room in the ER the doctor came in took a look in her ear and told her she had a severe ear infection and proceeded to tell her that he was prescribing a pain med, an oral antibiotic, and ear drops with steroids.
We sat there waiting for another 2 hours repeatedly asking them for her to receive something for the pain with no results. At the end of 3 hours and repeated visits from a staff member who had no idea of what she was doing regarding paper work so that we could pay our bill and leave, my patience began to wear thin. I stepped out the door and managed to catch the doctor who had seen her and ask him how much longer it would be, only to discover that they had placed her paper work in the wrong file. He apologized and said that they had been treating a patient who was "REALLY" sick and things had gotten a little confused.
We paid the $188 fee because we have no insurance because it's too expensive under the "AFFORDABLE" care act and were classified as a CHARITY case. I didn't ask for charity, all I
wanted was to pay what I owed now and be billed for the rest.
Finally after spending 3 1/2 hours there she was released and when we went to get the prescriptions filled for pain reliever (cheap), antibiotic (cheap), steroid ear drops ($167 with a discount ) for a total bill of $188. Funny how the hospital bill (co-pay) was the same as the medicine.
The health care system in this country is out of control. We would be better off not to own anything work for minimum wage and get free trips to the hospital and let all the other suckers pay for it. If Insurance was truly affordable instead of costing as much as a house payment every month then maybe things would run more smoothly at the ER because when you tell them you don't have insurance and that you are going to pay cash you may as well be speaking a foreign language.