I once worked at a hospital in the ER where the department director was a union-busting bastard, but the CEO was pretty reasonable. After I left, one of the other ER techs went to the CEO about our pay being messed up and got everyone $5-6/hour raises to actual market rate. Also, there were a few weeks when we were really understaffed that the hospital encouraged admin folks to volunteer as "candystripers" in the ER to do stuff like help clean/turn over rooms, and answer patient call lights for water, blankets, etc. And the CEO was down in the ER for a couple hours every evening helping out most of that time period. It was encouraging to see the CEO of the hospital putting on some gloves and helping us with basic stuff like cleaning and stocking.
medgremlin
It's definitely a short term coping mechanism, but it can help you stay steady until your appointment: try to just go through the motions. Just stick to routines, and try not to think about much of anything. Mundanity can be an effective tool in this situation, and once you meet with the grief counselor, you can work with them on how to deal with this moving forward.
I want to be very clear though: I am suggesting a short term survival mechanism until you can get professional care. This is not a healthy long-term solution and should not be considered as such.
Taking an ambulance to the ER does not ensure that you will be seen faster. A decent chunk of ambulance patients go right out to the lobby to wait like everyone else because everyone is triaged based on their illness or injury, not their mode of transportation.
It was a legitimately nonprofit hospital and he probably was overpaid, but at least he was a practicing physician at one point and did seem to give a damn about his staff.