Timeout Corner

Accountability. Something that I am trying to ingrain in my children. For everything you do in life there is a consequence - negative or positive. Sometimes you may not like the outcome of your decision, but regardless of your choice you have to take ownership of it. If you choose to hit your brother when he steals your truck instead of asking for it back, you go into timeout. And as you sit in timeout, you can think about your action and it's consequence. I seriously wish there was a timeout corner for ER patients. The lack of accountability that a great deal of these people have is outrageous. The man who has a tempertantrum because he has to wait for 4 hours to be seen for the back pain he's had for 2 months (and naturally hasn't taken anything for since last Tuesday) or the lady who was given a prescription for high blood pressure that hasn't had time to fill it in the last three weeks who now presents with a headache and a blood pressure of 215/112. Our health care system could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year if the general public would just learn how to be accountable for their health. The 63 year old who didn't want to spend $20 on Accucheck strips is now costing the health care system thousands because he is now hospitalized for a week with a blood sugar of 68. Not only is there strain on the finances of the health care system, but on his household as he is now off work, his family has to pay $20/day for parking, the emotional strain of the family is unmeasurable, plus who really wants to spend a week in the hospital??? The timeout corner when you are 2 1/2 is horrible because you can't play with your toys or your brother plus it totally sucks having mom upset with you. The timeout corner for our unaccountable patients should have glaring bright strobe lights, be blasting that stupid "Friday" song full blast and smell like a combination of c-diff and a stage 3 pressure ulcer. One hour in the timeout corner. I would love to think that this would change the health accountability of most patients although I would also love to think that my son will not spend anymore time in timeout for hitting his brother. Needless to say there has been more than one timeout in our house.