State officials hold first public inquiry regarding length medical wait times - WCAX

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BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - The Department of Financial Regulation held its first public comment period for long medical wait times. This comes after they launched an investigation into the issue in early September.

On Wednesday night, people shared their frustrations and possible solutions. They told the state officials these long wait times are personally impacting them.

“I work 12 hour shifts and help my patience and they go home because I help them,” said Marzena Steciak, a nurse at UVMMC and mother to a daughter with autism. “Then I go home and can’t help my daughter. I don’t know if you can imagine how that feels.”

Steciak said she brought her daughter to the University of Vermont Medical Center’s emergency department for a mental health crisis in March. “We had to spend 17 hours, I believe, in the ER, only to have my daughter seen for 20 minutes by pediatric psychiatry and leave with band aid treatment,”

10 days later, Steciak and her daughter were back in the emergency department, where they were referred to outpatient pediatric psychiatry.

The frustration doesn’t end there, eight months later, they’re still waiting for an appointment.

“I don’t know what the solution is. I know they have fantastic nurses in pediatrics,” Steciak explained. “Why not make some beds psychiatry beds? Why not train them and give them tools that they needed?”

David Bellini is also not a stranger to long wait times. He came to the meeting prepared with solutions. “When you have to jump through hoops as a patient, I would like the wait times to be concurrent,” Bellini said. “Like when you call up and say ‘oh my god I’m in level 10 pain.’”

Bellini said the demand for referrals is also causing longer wait times. “UVM requires the referral, not the insurance companies. UVM has become the insurance company, so they put up their own barriers to care.”

From there, he said it’s a whole process. “Then you see the specialist who says ‘yep, you sure need an MRI and it sure looks like you’ve blown out a disk in that area,” Bellini explained. “Then the wait and wait and wait begins.”

There will be another public comment period on the topic of wait times on November 4th. That one will also be conducted virtually.

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