ER waiting room...

[teresajoy]

Grand Rapids is not too far from here! Hi neighbor!

I have a sister in law who use to go to the emergency room for every little problem. It drove me nuts, and I would try to explain to her why she shouldn't do it. But, some people are hard headed and don't listen to reason.

I feel for the nurses in the ER (or anywhere actually), I can imagine it must be a very stressful job. You guys are VERY appreciated by me and my family!

 

[mdsouth]

I too truly appreciate the nurses and other staff members. Just this past week, I was walking down the sidewalk with my DD4 holding hands. I fell down and pulled her down with me. She was bleeding from her nose, mouth and a big gash on her forehead. She ended up having to have stitches in her forehead right above the eye. Everyone at the ER we went to was wonderful. THANKS!!

The wait wasn't too bad either. The nurse took care of us right away. We only waited for about an hour and a half before seeing the ER doctor, and the actual plastic surgeon was there about 30 minutes later. We called the plastic surgeon in since I too fell when I was little and had to have stitches on my forehead. So all my life, I have worn bangs to hide the scar. We hope that with the specialist work and advanced methods since I had my stitches over 35 plus years ago will help keep the scaring to a minimal level.

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL THE NURSES and DOCTORS AND OTHER MEDICAL STAFF. I am thankful that people such as yourself chose to go into the profession and take care of others.

 

[bellarella]

Fortunately in our area most emergency rooms have restructured their practices and procedures. I think 3 of the major hospital systems have 30 minute guarantees -- that you will be seen by a doctor within that time. They are getting much more efficient.

I think most of the wait time problems come with the over all structure of our health care system. Most communities do not have adequate urgent care facilities. If there were more 24 hour urgent care facilities available, less people would find themselves in the ER. Not to mention the way insurance works -- that dumps a lot of people needlessly into the ER system as well. I know I have been incredibly frustrated by the need to go the ER for something simple like IV fluids. I know I'm not dying, but I have had no other choice because doctors offices don't typically do IV fluids and there were no urgent care centers.

 

[MrsPooh]

I have no problem waiting in the ER if it is determined that other cases are more serious but I did get very angry earlier this year when I took my 18yr old dd.

DD had been sick for nearly three weeks. Yes we had been to the dr - four times during the three weeks as a matter of fact as well as multiple phone calls. She had a terrible sore throat, slight fever and other symptoms that led us to suspect she had mono but the dr totally blew us off when we mentioned it. She had been on five different meds during this time period.

One weekend her entire neck began to swell. The gland in the back and sides of her neck swelled to the point that you could see them buldging from across the room, she couldn't move her head because they were so swollen --- they were so swollen that she was unable to close her jaw!!! In addition she was obviously very sick and her throat was intensely painful. Another phone call to our dr was a waste of time. He acted like I was just being an overly worried mom. Of course our insurance expects a dr referral for ER visits that are not life threatening. I'm no medical expect but this seemed very serious to me. I called the insurance call center to speak to a nurse. They took my info and then I had to wait nearly an hour for someone to call me back. Her advice was to eat some soup and call the dr in the a.m.

I didn't know what to do. We really couldn't afford an uncovered ER visit right then but I was certain she needed treatment. Our local grocery has started an insta-clinic where you are seen by a nurse practictioner for $39. I took her there hoping for some educated advice. We got it. The nurse took her backround, looked at her glands and told me "This is very, very serious and you must take her to the ER immediately. I won't charge you for the visit if you promise to take her straight to the closest ER."

We went, signed in and waited... Now I have worked in a hospital and completely understand the triage system but what I couldn't understand was that she was not even triaged until we had been waiting for over four hours! During that time her throat began to swell shut. She could no longer swallow and I had to get her a cup to spit into. I talked to the girl at the desk several times - not angry just trying to find out what was going on - and was just told to wait. I wanted to go somewhere else but was afraid I'd be at the end of an even longer line. I kept thinking we'd be next!

Once they took her in they were concerned and acted quickly. She received fluids (was very dehydrated), IV steroids, IV pain meds and something else.

The diagnosis...she had mono. No surprise to us but every medical pro we gave the history to couldn't believe our dr hadn't tested.

We were sent home and told to call a dr the next day. Actually they gave us the name of a new dr but we couldn't go there right away (again due to stupid insurance). Again our dr was an idiot.

Over the next two days we made two more ER visits as her symptoms got worse and more symptoms arrived. We went to a different hospital and while we had waits, she was triaged immediately and I felt they had a better grip on what was going on with people - and that hospital was overfilled.

She was admitted following the last visit. Our wait in the ER was long because the hospital was full. She was lucky that she was 18 and being seen by a pedi so she could go to the peds floor which had one room open. Other ER patients had been waiting for six hours or more just for a room to open up.

Her case was severe - she spent four days in the hospital on IVs, IV steroids, IV antibiotics and IV pain killers and IV zofran trying to get her well enough to go home.

I understand the wait situation but I will not go back to the one hospital that did not even bother to triage her for hours. Her throat kept swelling and that was too dangerous to keep waiting. I wish I'd left and gone somewhere else.

Live and learn. BTW, the dr continued to be an idiot and we are changing.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Two years ago DD had a fish hook go through her hand. Imagine having a hysterical kid with a hook through her hand that was bleeding all over-you'd think they would see her right away at the hospital-NO. Me and DH sat in the waiting room with her for more than 4 hours before they brought DD back-then waited almost another full hour before the doctor came in to treat her. This is the norm and not the exception by us. That is NJ medical care at its finest. My DSister and BIL are doctors and they tell me that unless your on your deathbed, don't go to the ER. I hear the daily horror stories from them and it is not very reassuring!

Also, not sure about other hospitals, but the ones around me have gotten VERY smart to people who come into the ER via ambulance-that does not guarantee you will be seen right away at all. Most times, unless you have a life threatening situation, they simply wheel the stretcher into the hall and you wait your turn just like everyone else.

We don't have immediate or urgent care centers in our area. Most doctors close up shop at 5pm and then the ER is your only alternative. We get a lot of indigent care (clinic patients) that use the ER as their Primary Care Center-very frustrating, but nothing is done about it, so that adds to our ridiculous wait times.

 

[laughinplace199]

Your wait time in the ER will vary, depending on who is already there and who needs treatment the most. The ER at our children's hospital has triage nurses right as you walk in, so they know exactly what's going on with each patient. When DD needed stitches in her chin, it was a quiet day there and she was seen right away. In fact, they took her so quickly that the numbing medication hadn't totally taken effect yet. We (the Dr and DD & I) had to wait in the room for a while until her chin was numb enough for the dr to stitch her up. A few months later, we took DS to the ER because he had a high fever and he was lethargic. We waited over an hour to be seen, and then we were in the examining room for about 4 hours while they examined him, ran tests, gave him IV's, took blood, etc. The wait in both cases was not long, but my kid needing stitches didn't wait at all and my unresponsive, lethargic DS had to wait. It just depends on the other people who are there and how sick/hurt they are.

 

[dementia412]

We actually have a hospital here which claims to never make you wait more than 30 minutes! Makes me feel like a pizza.... remember when places had those deals; half an hour or it's free! Pizza drivers were having accidents all the time and the pizza quality started getting really bad. I don't want that in my ER... yes, 6 hours is crazy, but I'd rather that than get lousy doctoring because they have to get to the next patient .. hurry hurry.
Now ER horror stories... there is the woman who died on the ER floor while doctors and police walked right by her... she was throwing up blood, and two people called 911... one of the 911 people said "what do you want me to do?
" ... um I don't know, how about calling up the police there and asking why they are allowing a woman to puke blood while the doctors do nothing to help her! The hospital where that happened had allready been given two or three warning to fix the problems in their ER.... but they were still open. What I wonder is why the other people in the ER were not screaming at the nurses to help this woman... I would be like.. fix my broken arm later, she puking blood you morons!

efficient triage is the best practice... if a hospital doesn't have triage and there is another hospital to go to... do!

 

[wdwpjs]

Thanks for all the well wishes! DD is doing much better. Our hospital staff was excellent! The nurses{all3 of them} were wonderful. I guess the only complaint I had was the lack of staff. It was a weekend night and we live near the beach so the weekends tend to be busier. I just assumed they would up their staff. I have alot to learn about the ER procedures. haha. I was just thinking they could have gotten her in and out so someone else could have her bed. I am very lucky it wasnt something else more serious. I guess we watch too much t.v. and expect to see some interns or residents walking around doing all the small stuff. I did feel sorry for the one doctor that night though. He had his hands full!!!

 

[Tikicampers]

Thanks for all the well wishes! DD is doing much better. Our hospital staff was excellent! The nurses{all3 of them} were wonderful. I guess the only complaint I had was the lack of staff. It was a weekend night and we live near the beach so the weekends tend to be busier. I just assumed they would up their staff. I have alot to learn about the ER procedures. haha. I was just thinking they could have gotten her in and out so someone else could have her bed. I am very lucky it wasnt something else more serious. I guess we watch too much t.v. and expect to see some interns or residents walking around doing all the small stuff. I did feel sorry for the one doctor that night though. He had his hands full!!!

So happy to hear you complimenting the hospital staff. Some people would've been so mad about the wait, that they wouldn't have noticed the caring nurses. As one poster mentioned, ER waits are probably only going to get longer due to the growing shortage of nurses. DH is on a floor, not in the ER, but they can't move people out of the ER if there is no one to care for them on the floor. We keep hearing really scary statistics about how few nurses there will be soon. DH already has a large patient load as it is.

 

[bumbershoot]

They tend to see the ambulance as their free ticket past the waiting room.

Um, *free*? I'm thinking our areas are different, as a ride in an ambulance will get you a lovely bill around here.


So...just the other night my son splash boiling water onto his body, and by the time we realized he had gotten it on his chest as well as his arm (I was running water on his arm and he finally made it clear to me that something was wrong with his shirt-covered chest as well), it had blistered and he pulled off the blister as I took the shirt off.

My handydandy first-aid flip chart briefly explained burns, and said for second degree to call EMS. So we did. 5 firefighter/EMT guys in the apartment (why are the firefighters in my area SO incredibly good-looking? why?), all of whom were glad we had called, but didn't want to transport DS, because of the charge it would incur. We said thanks, and they left, and we got into the car.

Luckily there's a children's ER 5 minutes away that has proven itself SANE to us in the past. When DS was 6 months old, a Friday night before xmas, he slammed his face onto a table at a restaurant, and knocked out a brand new tooth. While we were going to the car (after phoning his Dr and getting her advice) i lost track of the tooth, and didn't know if he had swallowed it, and if so, what that would mean. So we went up to the kid's ER, sat in the triage area (almost winter, LOTS of illness, packed triage area), and soon got to see a nurse, who heard our info, looked around sneakily, and said that she would need to send us back but we were surrounded by sick people and didn't need to be, and if we'd go to that phone over there and call the phone-triage nurse, she might be able to give us info. The nurse never took down any info, and we just went to the phone, called, and found out that the tooth would either pass, or be dissolved, and it was NOTHING to be in an ER about. We were SO incredibly grateful for that.


So the other night, we went in and were put into a room almost immediately, and a, well, I don't know what she was (the staff didn't wear nametags and seemed to not be interested in giving any more info than first names), came in and did some vitals, looked at the burns, blah blah, then another person came in, looked some more, gave him some ibuprofen (and was SO COOL about our legal yet alternative health beliefs, and we talked about acupuncture and chiropractic a little bit b/c she has a painful back but doesn't want to take the drugs her dr gaveher), then we got seen by ANOTHER person, and I think yet another person, then we were moved back to a room next to a little girl who was sick with something (we didin't want to breathe until they left, and I seriously considered snagging some of the face masks on the shelves next to us), and then we WAITED.

Sure, we were in a room, but we were in the back and no one but the cleaning lady was coming by for quite awhile.

I might mention that the kid's part of the hospital is connected to another hospital, and a friend of mine just had a routine scoping procedure there, and was forgotten about for 45 minutes...she was checked in, put in a room and told someone would be there, and 45 minutes later, no one. She finally went looking for someone.

I didn't want that happening. So I went to the bathroom (walking right by the nurse's station), asked if we could look at the kid's books for my DS with the burns in the back room, and lastly went to ask if he could eat a granola bar (we were making dinner when he got burned, and it was 10pm and no one had had dinner, but there were BIG signs everywhere to NOT EAT unless it was approved...if I were in labor I would be ignoring those signs, but in this case where I don't know much about burns and shock, I wanted to follow their rules), and the doctor had just pulled DS's chart and followed me back to the room.

I think we saw 4 more people, plus the administrator to take our insurance information, and finally the 3rd person came back and put a dressing on DS's burns and let us go.

It was about 3.5 hours, and while we WERE seeing people quite often, it was what turned out to be a long wait before anything was DONE.



While waiting! One of the women who helped us said that she had worked in THIRTEEN emergency rooms across the country, and that the hospital we were in (Mary Bridge in Tacoma, for anyone wondering) had the SHORTEST waiting time she had dealt with. She said the ER she worked at in Boston, you would usually wait TWELVE hours.


I know that when I was 11 and took the end of my finger off, I turned a bath towel red while waiting at the ER for someone to see me.

So...I think that waiting at ERs is just what happens. Is it good? Not so much. But could any hospital fund the number of nurses and doctors to make it possible to be seen very very quickly? Hmm, I doubt there's room in a hospital budget for that...

 

[bumbershoot]

Back when I didn't have insurance, I would go to MultiCare walk-in places during the day, for help when I was too sick, or injuries, rather than to an ER. I was once moving a table that turned out to have a leaf and an opening for the leaf, and I discovered that when it opened while I was carrying it, and took my big toenail off rather traumatically.

I couldn't drive, and called my off/on boyfriend (owner of the table), and I called MultiCare, the one closer to me, to make sure they were open. They said yes, but their xray machine was broken, so please go to the one much further away. Went there, and they took an HOUR of ungloved time (I was bleeding like CRAZY, all over everything) to get an xray, which was difficult b/c I was positively writhing in pain. Once it was all over I had the brains to think...why so interested in a break? nothing to do with a broken toe, how about helping with the obvious injury?

Once it was at last determined that I didn't break my toe (of course not, my nail took the brunt of the force), the doctor came in to see me...she took a look at my toe and said, and I quote, "ew".



Barely cleaned it off (she finally put on gloves, thankfully...I'm not sure the staff there cared about their health b/c I could have had ANY disease and they exposed themselves repeatedly to my blood without gloves), did a sloppy bandage (the story above I mention my finger...I did almost the same thing to my toe so I am an expert on good vs bad toe/finger bandages), gave me a prescription for vicodin, and sent me off. No after-care suggestions.....



Shoulda gone to the ER.

 

[LisaNJ25]

ER wait times can be crazy. My grandmother fell last year and needed stitches.. 12 hours later she ended up with over 80 stitches.

Last summer we took our ds who was 10mo at the time. Hubby was holding him on the porch and the chair collapsed. DS's legs were between DH's. DH must of tighten his legs as he was falling while trying to protect ds's head from hitting the cement. What what we can guess his leg twisted while between dh's leg.

The ER said he was fine.. no broken bones.. that the next morning I Dept of Family service's at my door telling me Ds's leg was in fact broken and we have to take him back to the ER. That they say here 3 hours and open an investigation basically occusing my husband of doing it on purpose.

 

[hildasmuriel]

When my 8 year old daughter fell and hurt her arm, one look at the weird angle of it told me she had broken it. We took her to the local ER (or A&E as we call it here)and thought we would probably be there all night (weekend night - busiest time of the week) but we were quite surprised. We had to see triage nurse, x-ray, triage nurse again (confirmed the break in 2 places), junior doctor, senior doctor and then the plaster nurse and we were home within 3 hours, with an appointment made at the fracture clinic on the Monday. I thought that was good for a non-life threatening injury. Everybody we saw was so nice to my daughter and cheered her up enormously (we were supposed to be going on holiday the next day, but had to break the news to her that we couldn't now go).
Something else we had to be grateful for - no bill to pay or insurance to worry about. People moan about the quality of our National Health Service, but I LOOOOOOve it.

 

[bigbabyblues]

That isn't the norm in the ER I worked in, but it can vary. A lot of times, all of our rooms would be full with serious patients, and it just takes time for the tests, etc.

That long of a wait, especially after you got in the room, is ridiculous, at least to me. Having been on the "other side", I can understand to a point, but 6 hours? I do live in a small town, next hospital is about 45-60 minutes away.

Hope she's doing ok!

 

[kristenrice]

Um, *free*? I'm thinking our areas are different, as a ride in an ambulance will get you a lovely bill around here.

...by "free" I mean a) you can call 911 from a pay phone without money; 2) you can call 911 from a cell phone without minutes; 3) and you don't need cash up front to take an ambulance like you would if you took a taxi

I've had nurses ask me why patients I bring to the ED with minor complaints didn't call a taxi cab. My response is generally "Because taxis don't accept Medicaid".

PLEASE don't take this the wrong way!! I am NOT belittling the Medicaid program or those who benefit from it. It is a necessary program and it provides beneficial medical care to millions of people nationwide. Many of the patients I deal with are on medicaid and they do not receive a bill for services that we provide. So, from their perspective, the ambulance ride is "free" since it is "covered" by medicaid. In addition, since our company is a for-profit service, even medicaid patients provide us with income so it is to our advantage to transport them to the hospital no matter how trivial we think their "emergency" may be.

 

[mamaloya]

The problem with our Army Hospital is that you cannot call your doctor after hours. There is no one to call to find out if you have an emergency or not. I have 5 kids and are fairly adept at recognizing an emergency, but I am still not an expert and am not always sure. New parents really don't know and panic quite easily. They don't know that a 102 fever may not be urgent. Since they have no doctor to call to ask, they bring them to the ER. Their child has thrown up 3-4 times in the last 2 hours, they don't know that it can wait. I tried to call one night when I dd11 was having a psychotic reaction to a new ADHD medication. I could not get in touch with anyone. I almost called 911 because I did not want to risk driving with her. I called several numbers: doctor, clinic, ER, etc. There was no answer anywhere except the ER, where they told me that they could not give advice. So, I brought her in. After waiting 4-6 hours to see a doc, they diagnosed it as a temper tantrum. By the time he saw her, her eyes were no longer dialated and her heart rate was normal. I told him that it was a ridiculous diagnosis. I saw a ped (in the army you rarely see the same one twice) the next day and she agreed that it was a reaction to the med. I had no one to call to tell me whether or not to go.

That said, I went to the same ER a few months ago with chest pains, shoulder pain, shortness of breath, etc and was seen immediately. It was not a heart attack, but it was good to know they did take those symptoms seriously.

2 days ago we were at the ER because my dd6 broke her collar bone. We were triaged immediately, sent to Xray and then waited about 1.5 hours to see a doc and was out about a half hour later. Of course this was at 3pm and her bone was noticeably broken. The triage nurse saw us on the way out and said, "It was broken huh?" I said yes and she said "didn't need a medical degree to diagnose that one!" That is how obvious it was. I am aggravated though because all they did was put it in a sling. They said they don't use the figure 8 braces anymore because they "slip". Well, the sling doesn't provide any support at all. She is just swinging it around and then crying because it hurts. I need to see if there is someway to stabilize it more.

OK, sorry for the long post, I will shut up now. I agree that if we get the non emergency cases out of the emergency room, it will improve the system.

 

[chaoscent]

This last year I have been a "frequent flyer" at the emergency room. Two of the four times I went there I was hospitalized from the ER. I live on the outskirts of Philadelphia, PA and go to a suburban ER that is also a trauma center. I do that because it is acutally closer than going into town. However, because it is a trauma center, the waits can be longer. I know that & expect that. One time I waited 5 hours to find out I was going to be hospitalized but there had been a few car accidents and the people who came in were worse off than me, so they were seen first. Perfectly understandable. However, when you are lying in a ER bed at 3:00 a.m. and you are tired, sick & cranky, you just want someone to come in and update you periodically. One visit I had a great nurse's asst? who would stop in every 20 to 30 mins to tell me what was going on. It made the waiting easier. I love the hospital and except for one person (a Physician's Asst.) everyone has been understanding and provided good care. Hopefully I am done with ER visits for a long while
Hope your child is doing better. Penny

 

[bumbershoot]

The ER said he was fine.. no broken bones.. that the next morning I Dept of Family service's at my door telling me Ds's leg was in fact broken and we have to take him back to the ER. That they say here 3 hours and open an investigation basically occusing my husband of doing it on purpose.

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?

 

[bumbershoot]

...by "free" I mean a) you can call 911 from a pay phone without money; 2) you can call 911 from a cell phone without minutes; 3) and you don't need cash up front to take an ambulance like you would if you took a taxi

I've had nurses ask me why patients I bring to the ED with minor complaints didn't call a taxi cab. My response is generally "Because taxis don't accept Medicaid".

PLEASE don't take this the wrong way!! I am NOT belittling the Medicaid program or those who benefit from it. It is a necessary program and it provides beneficial medical care to millions of people nationwide. Many of the patients I deal with are on medicaid and they do not receive a bill for services that we provide. So, from their perspective, the ambulance ride is "free" since it is "covered" by medicaid. In addition, since our company is a for-profit service, even medicaid patients provide us with income so it is to our advantage to transport them to the hospital no matter how trivial we think their "emergency" may be.

OK! I was thinking that if DS keeps on the way he's going, we might want to move to Michigan for the ambulance.

I also understand money concerns. DS did this on the last day before payday. We had $4 in the account (have I mentioned we just moved?) and nothing else available to us. Our Flex account, where we have the money for health care expenses budgeted, is MESSED UP and we STILL don't have access to the money they happily take out of our paycheck each payday (stinkin' WageWorks), so we didn't even have access to THAT money, which is where any of it should have come from for health stuff!

I was so worried they were going to charge the $75 non-admitted ER visit copay right then and there... Luckily they didn't. And they didn't give us a prescription for him, just all OTC stuff that could wait until the next day when we got paid.

SO frustrating. So in a way from that experience, I can understand using an ambulance when you have Medicaid and nothing else.


But Medicare didn't pay for FIL's ambulance ride to the hospital! That was a rude surprise to my grieving MIL (and it's how I know they charge around here).

 

[familyS]

Besides the children's ER rooms I mentioned in a previous post, we also have Urgent Care facilities in my area. If your doctor's office is closed and you feel you need to be seen, but don't know if you need the ER, you can go to an Urgent Care facility. They see a lot of allergy, flu, food poisoning, asthma, ear infections, cuts and bruises. They can send someone on to the ER or refer patients for x-rays, etc., if needed. It takes some of the stress off of the area ERs and the doctor's offices "Monday morning rush."

I hope these Ugent Care facilities start catching on all over the US, because it seems to have made a difference here.