ER waiting room...

[LisaNJ25]

That's incredibly scary. When we were taking our burned son to the ER, while we were trying to get some dry clothes on him (I'd had him under the water to cool his arm and chest), I too changed clothes to try to look more presentable. I'd just been scrounging around at home all day and looked grungy, but didn't want to present that to the ER!

I hope all turned out well in your case, and I hope your kiddo's leg healed up nicely!

Any word on how they missed a broken leg while you were there, by the way?

Thanks!! It took over a month until we were "cleared" Thankfully we had a few witnesses outside on the porch. Six to be exact that were outside that night. The ones we could not get to come over the next mornign while the case worked was there for 3 hours she contacted by phone and interview. The contacted out pediatrician also. I told hubby I dont know what would of happened if we were alone lol

I am still fighting the hospital over the second bill...He went the first time after midnight and than again around 11am.. so my insurance wont pay for 2 visits in one day.

No word on how the screwed up. It was a spiral fracture and the person who comes in the mornign and reads the overnight x-rays caught it. He ended up healing great and walked right after his first birthday.

 

[lcrane]

About 4 weeks ago my son broke his nose during a baseball game, we took him to the nearst Hospital (I did not want to go there, because the wait is always long, but we could not get it to stop bleeding), did we wait long yes 4 hours. Were there people in front of us yes (2) did any one leave before us yes (1) how do I know this because there is only 1 entrence to the ER except for the Ambulance entrence. 4 hours is to long to wait for anybody.

I can remember one case we took my brother in law to the emergency room with Chest Pains, and a lady had a miscarrage right there in the emergency room and no one came out I even went and told someone and no responed sometimes I think that the people working the ER just don't care, and that is sad for everyone involved.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

About 4 weeks ago my son broke his nose during a baseball game, we took him to the nearst Hospital (I did not want to go there, because the wait is always long, but we could not get it to stop bleeding), did we wait long yes 4 hours. Were there people in front of us yes (2) did any one leave before us yes (1) how do I know this because there is only 1 entrence to the ER except for the Ambulance entrence. 4 hours is to long to wait for anybody.

I can remember one case we took my brother in law to the emergency room with Chest Pains, and a lady had a miscarrage right there in the emergency room and no one came out I even went and told someone and no responed sometimes I think that the people working the ER just don't care, and that is sad for everyone involved.

Sorry but I have a major problem with 2 of your comments. First of all a bleeding broken nose might be a major emergency to you because its your kid, but to an ER, that sees alot worse its no big deal. Not that its not important it s just not 1st priority over someone with a more immediate health concern.

And: the woman with the miscarriage, I'm sure its not that no one cared , I'm sure the ER was short staffed as usual and the staff was with more medically dependent people then a woman having a miscarriage. Once a miscarriage begins, there is little that can be done to prevent it.

To a lay person , it seems like the staff is lazy or doesn't care, but in reality hospitals and ER's especially are severely short-staffed, so its not that "no one cares" its that medical personnel only have 2 hands and unfortunately there's usually not enough of those hands to go around. And unless something is done soon, which it doesn't seem like thats happening, expect the situations to get alot worse than better.

 

[LaraK]

ER waits are brutal...I've been on both sides of the wait. As PP have said, the staff does not want you to wait. In fact, they'd love nothing more than to get the patients seen as fast as possible because they don't like getting yelled at all day any more than anyone else. The wait times are going to continue to go up as the Baby Boomers age and get sick.

Around me, the ERs are so full we have to go on bypass all the time (that means we don't accept any new patients via ambulance). Yes, people use the ER as a primary care clinic. Other people use the ER because it's open at night and they don't want to take the time off of work to go to the doctor's office. Others overreact at an issue and think it's an emergency. Still others use a visit to the ER to try to make up for 10 years without a doctor's appointment. (and YES, we have to look into every single complaint they make)

It's not an ideal situation.

 

[mrsltg]

My mother was a long term ER nurse. What she has always said is absolutely true - "If you are the last person in the ER waiting room, be thankful. Things aren't that bad for you."

No kidding. I am sorry the OP had to wait six hours. I had to wait three hours back in February after my then 20 month old split open her forhead. All that wait only to be told she shouldn't get stitches because the scar created would be worse than the one that would form naturally. It's frustrating, but as the ambulances rolled in and people clearly in a lot worse shape were taken care of, I was thankful. They were having a much harder time than I was.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

To a lay person , it seems like the staff is lazy or doesn't care, but in reality hospitals and ER's especially are severely short-staffed, so its not that "no one cares" its that medical personnel only have 2 hands and unfortunately there's usually not enough of those hands to go around. And unless something is done soon, which it doesn't seem like thats happening, expect the situations to get alot worse than better.

I tend to agree with you. My sister and BIL are both doctors in a Level 1 trauma center-they are VERY understaffed there. They are always concerned about ALL of their patients, but they can only spread themselves so thin. However, there are some ER's where the front line staff (sign in and triage) need some people skills. I know its a very stressful job and they probably take a lot of abuse from some terribly frustrated and upset people, but you get the ones that are perpetually having a bad day every day and they have the smart commentary or snippy answers-nobody appreciates that when they are waiting in the ER. Seems we have a lot of these folks working in our local ER's by me.

 

[estherhead]

The ER wait depends on the severity of your injury and how many other people with serious injuries or illnesses are already in the exam rooms. Anything critical or life-threatening goes to the front of the line. Six hours is a long time to wait, but you don't know what was wrong with the people who were already there. I wander through the ER a lot. Many of the beds are filled with people waiting for test results, x-rays, specialists, etc. Even ambulances are waiting to drop off their patients until the ER beds are available. It is kind of hard to tell someone that it will take a long time and to go somewhere else because people are always coming in. Hope your daughter is feeling better.

Yup. I've taken lots of people to the ER & always had FOREVER waits. A few years ago I had throat surgery & had a bleed out. The first night I had to go in I waited 5 hours and then was sent home. The next night I almost bled to death & had a clot poised to go to my brain. We had NO WAIT. We called on the way & they whisked me in the moment I got there. For 3 hours a doctor never left my side. So if you go to the ER & have no wait, it generally means you are dying. Sorry for the injury & sorry you had a 6 hour wait. But for stitches, in my experience, that is pretty common.

 

[momof5boys]

Ok I didn't even bother reading all of the posts. Here it is straight from an ER nurses mouth. Yes 6 hours is a long wait. Some ER's are busier than others based on location, insurance and reputation and some are poorly staffed due to wages and working conditions. Right now I work at a community hosp. ER we have 17 beds. 2 rooms are trauma geared and 2 are psych geared(nothing on the walls etc.) Please don't call an ER we will not tell you how long the wait is. The last thing we want is to tell you it's a short wait and then a car accident with 7 patients arrive. Also just because you come in by ambulance doesn't mean you will go directly to a room, sometimes we send you to triage especially the "walking wounded. " Unfortunately most ER's have separate ambulance entrances so people in the waiting room can't see how many squads are coming in so the sit in the waiting room thinking we are ignoring them. Right now there are no urgent care centers in our area that are open at night so we are it. Some people abuse the system(I actually had a person come by squad for a paper cut) but by law we are required to see everyone so we can't send you to another ER so now everyone waits. We go as fast as we can but sometimes there's too many patients or very ill patients, or the hospital is full and we can't get admissions to the floor to open exam rooms. But we try!