For the benefit of the one or two people (it seems) who do not already know, I had the opportunity to experience firsthand the reality of the closing of the Suburban Campus emergency room and inpatient units very soon after last Friday's change.

I had an accident Saturday night, not long before the urgent care center was to close at 10 p.m. At that time I believed that all I needed was urgent care treatment so I decided to wait until the next morning for it to open again. I have a feeling a lot of people out there will be doing this. Take it from me, it's probably not a good idea.

By 10 a.m. on Sunday, my injury was at a point where I could no longer get to the urgent care center. I had to call an ambulance, and got my first ambulance ride (as a patient). All of the things I've taken pictures of the EMS people doing to other folks were done to me. Fortunately, there were no cameras. (An aside here: Thanks bunches to the people at NorthWest EMS, who were, as always, professional, friendly, comforting, thorough...there just aren't enough adjectives to describe how wonderful they were.)

By law, however, ambulances cannot deliver you to an urgent care center, so I had to pick an E.R. At that moment I didn't have time to get on the internet or call friends and find out their experiences with various E.R.s in the area. Still convinced I only needed urgent care, my major focus was on getting to an E.R. where I had a chance of being seen quickly and sent home before lunchtime. Patience is not my strong suit, and patience while in pain is completely nonexistent. So I chose to go to the E.R. I believed would be most like the old Suburban E.R., and we set off for Sewickley Valley Hospital.

It was a good choice. I got immediate attention, great treatment, and by lunchtime I definitely was out of that E.R. Unfortunately, it was to an inpatient bed, not my very own couch. It turns out I had needed more than urgent care from the beginning, and had I gotten to Suburban's urgent care center, they just would have popped me in an ambulance and sent me someplace else. I needed surgery, and that's something that can no longer be done at Suburban.

The consequences of my choice of hospitals became apparent very quickly. All of my regular doctors are with WPAHS. They aren't on staff in the Heritage Valley system that includes Sewickley, so I found myself with new doctors. That may be an issue for some people. Doctors who now practice with WPAHS may want to broaden their staff privileges if at all possible, because I don't think I'm going to be the only person who finds herself in a Heritage Valley or UPMC hospital in the near future. In my case, the most important doctor was going to be an orthopedic surgeon, and the doctors I had seen in the past were very much on staff at Sewickley. There were bunches of them running around all over the place and visiting me at hours when all of us should have been sound asleep.

For me, the choice I made worked out well. Other people may make other choices based on various factors. The point is that it's probably something we should all think about before we actually need to make those choices.

So good luck to all of you who may find yourself in similar circumstances in the coming months, and if anybody has any tips on how to get around with a walker for the next six weeks, drop me an e-mail!