Christina For most respiratory diseases related to the airways and lungs, respiratory medicine should be treated first. After all, the scope of diagnosis and treatment of respiratory medicine covers the lower respiratory tract such as trachea, bronchi, lungs, and pleura. Whether it is the recent high incidence of mycoplasma pneumonia, cough secondary to influenza, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, or long-term smoking who want to have lung function screening, the respiratory department can basically deal with the above symptoms. If you are catching up with the high incidence of respiratory infectious diseases and your fever reaches above 38.5℃, many hospitals will require you to go to the fever clinic for investigation first. After ruling out infectious diseases such as influenza and COVID-19, it is not too late to triage you to the respiratory department.
However, when it comes to registration, there is no need to stick to this standard. Many special circumstances require flexible adjustments. Not long ago, my best friend's 3-year-old child had a fever for two days and was still coughing and couldn't sleep. I initially grabbed a seat in the adult respiratory department. When I got to the consultation desk, I was directly persuaded to go to the pediatric department. If the local hospital had a specialized pediatric respiratory subspecialty, it would be more suitable. Children's airway development and medication logic are much different from adults. It is definitely safer to see a specialized pediatrician.
If you encounter a sudden and threatening situation, such as accidentally choking on a foreign object that blocks the airway and making you unable to breathe, or coughing up a lot of blood or having chest pain that makes you unable to breathe, don’t wait for the number from the respiratory department. Go directly to the emergency green channel. Stabilize the critical situation first before conducting follow-up triage.
There are also upper respiratory tract problems that many people struggle with, such as a dry and itchy throat with a foreign body sensation, retching after brushing teeth in the morning, or rhinitis with sore throat. If there are no lower respiratory tract symptoms such as chest tightness, sputum, and chest pain, the otolaryngology department will have no problem at all. I myself had this problem some time ago and thought it was a problem. A cold caused bronchitis, so I went to the respiratory department a week in advance. After asking about my symptoms, the doctor directly directed me to the ear, nose and throat department next door, saying that I had an acute attack of chronic pharyngitis, a throat problem of the upper respiratory tract. The ear, nose and throat department saw it more clearly in the specialist's mirror, and as expected, he prescribed some atomizers and lozenges, and I was fine within three days.
Of course, if you take a CT scan and find nodules or tumors on the lungs that require surgical evaluation, the respiratory doctor will take the initiative to issue a referral after the examination. Such problems that require surgery will have to be transferred to thoracic surgery.
If you are really not sure, you don’t need to search for a long time by yourself. Go to the hospital guidance desk and ask, or enter your symptoms into the registration platform. The department recommended by the system will basically be correct, saving you a wasted trip to the wrong number.
