How to lose your license in 10 minutes....

[FormerCallingCardRep]

Around here, even if you go in with chest pains and a known cardiac condition you end up sitting in the waiting room. It has happened to me and to Hubby. When he had his heart attach on Thanksgiving day he sat in the waiting room for over an hour before they took him to the back. Once they got him to the back and got his labs back they had him in CCU within 15 minutes.

[mathnerd]

Speaking of ERs. I'm in the waiting room now with a friend of my mother's. They didn't move very fast at first because she seems like she's okay but after they took her blood sugar they alternated between a flurry of motion and amazement that she is still standing with a blood sugar of 30.

[Amina516]

Around here, even if you go in with chest pains and a known cardiac condition you end up sitting in the waiting room. It has happened to me and to Hubby. When he had his heart attach on Thanksgiving day he sat in the waiting room for over an hour before they took him to the back. Once they got him to the back and got his labs back they had him in CCU within 15 minutes.

I'm sorry you guys had to experience that. Our protocol is an EKG in less than 10 mins with anyone complaining of chest pain and over the age of 25. If the EKG is normal, then you are returned to the waiting room if no beds are available. We still treat from the waiting room though, so if the wait is long enough they'd also get bloodwork. In a perfect world, one where the ER was not used as a primary care office, we'd have beds open all the time for cases like your husbands.

I hope hubby's ok now

[Catwoman2965]

The one and only time I was in the ER, my dr. told me to meet him there (pancreatitis from an ERCP) ugh. It was a friday night, so packed, and i walk in with my puke basin and go up to the traige desk. The nurse looked at me, and said, you come with me, and took me back, where my dr. was waiting. But even after he decided to admit me, and I had gotten some demerol, I had to lie on a stretcher in the corner, since all rooms were full, until they found me a bed. I was ok; drifting in and out. I'm thinking maybe they didn't want me puking my brains out in the waiting room, since you know someone else would have been sick too...

[Amina516]

The one and only time I was in the ER, my dr. told me to meet him there (pancreatitis from an ERCP) ugh. It was a friday night, so packed, and i walk in with my puke basin and go up to the traige desk. The nurse looked at me, and said, you come with me, and took me back, where my dr. was waiting. But even after he decided to admit me, and I had gotten some demerol, I had to lie on a stretcher in the corner, since all rooms were full, until they found me a bed. I was ok; drifting in and out. I'm thinking maybe they didn't want me puking my brains out in the waiting room, since you know someone else would have been sick too...

Too many times we get doctors who send in their patients and DONT bother to tell them that they will meet them or that they want them to have an ER workup for whatever reason.

They seem surprised when we explain that unless their doctor is here or decided to make them a direct admission, they have to wait and be seen with the masses. Unfortunately, puking in the waiting room is a normal occurance that totally skeeves people out. Im glad you got taken care of though. It also amuses me when people ask for demerol. We haven't carried it in a long time.

Also, pancreatitis from an ERCP? Im sorry that happened. One of the main reasons I refuse to get one. I dont want to risk it.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

I hope hubby's ok now

Hubby is fine. He spent a couple of days in the hospital and we found he only has two cardiac arteries. I made him go on a diet with me and he is doing better.

[Mishi]

Too many times we get doctors who send in their patients and DONT bother to tell them that they will meet them or that they want them to have an ER workup for whatever reason.

The doctors I saw as a kid always sent a letter along with us when we were sent to the ER, most of the time we skipped past triage and were seen straight away. (I haven't needed the ER for myself since I moved out of home, which I think is awesome!)

Also, Jazzy has been learning about emergency workers at school lately - the biggest point that she's been discussing at home has been about what is and isn't important enough for an ambulance. Rugz had trouble not laughing when I asked about splinters.

[dalesys]

... Rugz had trouble not laughing when I asked about splinters.

"It's not a splinter, it's an airplane!" My sister, as Mom was flame-sterilizing The Needle Of Inquiry.

[Sapphire Silk]

Even being brought in in an ambulance doesn't guarantee you won't be dumped into the waiting room. More than once we did that. It was quite amusing to hear the patient bitch that they thought they would get seen sooner.

Yup that's a common occurance in ERs world wide. Where I've worked, if there was a bed we usually would just go ahead and room the patient, but I did have one charge nurse who thought that was just enabling these jerks, and he insisted they go through triage like everyone else to disabuse them of that habit.

Don't see that it worked any.

There's a dark place in my heart that smiles when I see an ambulance assigned to triage.

These are the people that call ambulance for a stubbed toe, a cold and other random, nonemergent things.

I think I've told you guys about the pregnant girl who created chaos during a mass trauma event just so she could get a free ultrasound . . . by calling 911 from the waiting room. But yeah, Amina I have that same dark place in my heart, and it doesn't smile. It grins fiendishly.

...Like, really? O.o

I've been in the waiting room with a fairly large wound in my wrist needing stitches and it still took them 45 minutes to take me back.

Yeah, if the bleeding is controlled, it can probably wait a bit, but not too long if we're going to close it that night. An hour is about right.

Around here, even if you go in with chest pains and a known cardiac condition you end up sitting in the waiting room. It has happened to me and to Hubby. When he had his heart attach on Thanksgiving day he sat in the waiting room for over an hour before they took him to the back. Once they got him to the back and got his labs back they had him in CCU within 15 minutes.

Ack. So sorry to hear that. I take the cautious route with chest pain and assume cardiac until proven otherwise.

The one and only time I was in the ER, my dr. told me to meet him there (pancreatitis from an ERCP) ugh. It was a friday night, so packed, and i walk in with my puke basin and go up to the traige desk. The nurse looked at me, and said, you come with me, and took me back, where my dr. was waiting.

Most general docs won't meet patients in the ER anymore. A lot of them don't have admitting privileges anymore; the hospitalist takes care of the patient while in hospital.

Abdominal pain is another high priority complaint, and I try to get them back as quick as possible because there are so many potentially urgent surgical reasons for abdominal pain. But I once spent 5 hours in an ER waiting room myself once (an ER where I used to work, ironically) because it was so busy with serious ambulance cases puking my guts up the whole time. I was very dehydrated when they finally got me back. Evil Empryss was getting pretty upset about the delays, and I was certainly frustrated but I knew the problem was either a stomach bug or a bad flare up of my Irritable Bowel Syndrome (lands me in the ER once every couple of years with intractable pain, nausea, and vomiting).