25 Minutes! In an ER!

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Hell, every time I've ever been to the hospital I've always had a long wait. Even when I wound up needing emergency surgery for my perforated bowel, I still had to wait a few hours before even being taken back into a room, and a few hours after that before the doctor even got to me.

Of course, nobody realized just how sick I was (not even me) until the doctor called a surgeon down to look at me and the surgeon announced how bad off I really was, so I'm not surprised or even upset that what turned out to be a life-or-death situation for me was treated like a non-emergency, since that's what I had first assumed it to be when I went to the hospital.

A 25-minute wait would shock the hell out of me if I ever experienced it. I don't think I've ever waited less than an hour to be taken to the back, let alone seen by a doctor.

[Bandit]

Lets see:

10:00 am - Broke (almost crushed) leg in a bicycle accident.
10:45 am (ish) - in ER and taken in quickly to a bed.
7:30 pm - get leg set. *

Me - 10 years old. And is loathed to go to a hospital/doctor since.

*My parents thought - and then realized - the doc needed to sober up first. He was later dismissed from the hospital and had a bedside manor that would make Vlad the Impaler look like Mother Theresa.

B

[KatherineB]

Mine was a gall-stone attack. I went in at 4am with only two people ahead of me and I still had to wait 2.5 hours. Did I whine? No. (Although I did beg to go home when the attack finally ended (it had gone on for 8+ hours at that point) and got called just as I was about to head out the door.)

[fireheart]

We don't go into the ER unless it's a true emergency. Some people treat the ER like it's their regular doctor's office. Would also help if there were more urgent care centers open 24 hrs about to take the non-emergent cases. T

There's a slightly similar setup near my place. There are two hospitals in my area, one of which has a trauma unit.

For minor cases, there's an after-hours clinic near my place. During the day they are a specialist clinic with a few GP's thrown into the mix. After 5pm however, they turn into the after-hours service, which calls patients based on when they got here/need (a combo of the two). They will ask for your symptoms over the phone first and if you have chest pain/shortness of breath, they won't treat you and will tell you to get to the hospital pronto. (they are somewhat limited in what they have) They also will not treat prescription drug addicts or those with insomnia as a measure of protection (they will not prescribe sedatives or narcotics, you need to go to the hospital for those)

Best part is, they're free!

[dawnfire]

The closest hospital to me has an on site after hours clinic and everyone is funneled through there before they are admitted to emergency.

[smoorman76]

The last time I went to the ER, I never even had a chance to sit down. There was nobody else there at all and they took me straight back.

[dalesys]

The last time I went to the ER, I never even had a chance to sit down. There was nobody else there at all and they took me straight back.

Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie...

"Thet hospital was closed fifty years ago, after **** happened."

[SongsOfDragons]

When I got taken to hospital a couple of months ago I was showing meningitis symptoms, so I got an A&E booth as soon as I got in and someone to look at me straight away, because swollen noggin linings suck don'cha know. They deduced quickly that it wasn't bacterial (i.e. the bad one), and after that I think I had a wait of a few hours in my little booth for the doctor and then to let me have a CT scan; I don't know, as I was kind of out of it for most of the wait with a pillowcase over my face to block out the lights. From the tale my bf told me the next day, I was in for seven hours all told before they decided to keep me overnight and found me a bed. I was never in the waiting room but I know A&E was busy that day.

Turned out it was meningitis, but only the viral kind. By the time of the CT scan it had mostly gone, or so they said. I was only disappointed that I didn't get to see the picture of my noggin, but breaking my 'hospital virginity' as it were wasn't overly bad an experience, for which I do consider myself lucky.

[Tyg3rW01f]

Last time I went to the ER for something serious, I had broken and dislocated my ulna and radius. I went to the local hospital, and was shown right to Triage because it was a work-related, and possibly serious, injury. 180 seconds to get into an actual room. Not bad. Saw the doc in 20 minutes... painful, but reasonable.
THAT was when they screwed up, however.
...they x-ray me...
...they see the problem...
...and they DON'T put me in traction.
Nope, they put me in a splint and send me home with good drugs. Not complaining about the good drugs.
Nay, nay.
I'm complaining that they NEVER once put my arm in traction.
The next day, they put me in a cast, which they did not replace the next week when the swelling had reduced to nearly nothing like an ACTUAL doc would have done. I went 4 weeks in that cast, then 4 more in a second, my arm CURVED FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE, and wound up finding out I had to have it surgically broken, then plated.

Never going back to that ER again if I can help it. I'll drive 45 miles north to the one in the hospital where my mom works, thanks.

[fireheart]

Turned out it was meningitis, but only the viral kind. By the time of the CT scan it had mostly gone, or so they said. I was only disappointed that I didn't get to see the picture of my noggin, but breaking my 'hospital virginity' as it were wasn't overly bad an experience, for which I do consider myself lucky.

OK, I'm a little lost here, is viral meningitis considered to be less harmful than the bacterial kind? (it's like 12:15am here)

[SongsOfDragons]

OK, I'm a little lost here, is viral meningitis considered to be less harmful than the bacterial kind? (it's like 12:15am here)

(Non-medical person, I just read a lot) Yes. Very much so. Bacterial meningitis is the stuff of nightmares sometimes and is the thing they warn you about in the posters and adverts. Viral meningitis, according to one of the doctors I saw in the hospital, is extremely common and usually both very mild and short-lived (there was little trace of it on my scan after being brought in that afternoon, though I had been feeling like crap the day before, and not just because it was Eurovision ) but because the symptoms are the same it's a 'rush you to a doctor thing' both ways.

[raudf]

I hope to heck I never get seen quickly in a packed ER. EVER. And I refuse to go to the ER for anything less than an emergency. Even pneumonia didn't make me go. I went to my doc's night clinic instead.

The closest I have ever had to being in the ER was on base when I was a kid and split my chin open. Two stitches (which now they'd probably just surgically glue it and then put steri-strips on it) later, I was done and out. But that was the ER section of the base clinic, not a city type hospital.

[Sapphire Silk]

I don't get that at all. The one time I had to go to the ER, my dr. was waiting for me (pancreatitis after a procedure). I came in on a busy friday, with my puke basin. Triage nurse took one look at me and said come wiht me. i don't know if it was beacsue my dr. was there, or she didn't want me grossing everyone else out by my puking in the waiting room

Probably a bit of both. You had a complication after a procedure: that makes you high priority. Pancreatic pain is one of the worst pains if not THE worst you can get, that's high priority. Active N/V and abdominal pain is always a red flag for me; sometimes I have to make them wait but I try to get them back asap.

But if a doctor shows up to see a patient in the ER, that's a big deal. It takes a lot for a doc to meet a patient in the ER; we get them back asap.

Lets see last time I was in the ER was from the assault in Jan, that was about a 15 min wait. Before that was my heart attack and that was real fast, before then was my arm and I think they only moved me to a room cause I was dripping. And then before that....hrm oh the twins...had to sit awhile there which didn't help.

But during all of those I got to hear people complain that I went first and they had gotten there first.

Heart attack: #1 priority. Chest pain is a "get 'em back quick" complaint. Fractures are also serious injuries; bones needs to be stabilized quickly so they'll heal and to prevent injury to nerves or blood vessels, or something called compartment syndrome.

Some people treat the ER like it's their regular doctor's office.

In their defense, it's often because the ER is their only point of access to health care.

If it weren't for the latter, those of us who treat it properly wouldn't have as long of a wait.

Probably true. Hopefully things will get a bit better when the individual mandate from Obamacare kicks in, and people can actually get seen in doctors offices and urgent cares.

Would also help if there were more urgent care centers open 24 hrs about to take the non-emergent cases. That's one thing I loved about the ER at the hospital of the university I went to: one triage for both the ER and a 24 hr urgent care.

The problem with urgent cares is EMTALA doesn't apply to them. They can demand cash up front. That keeps the poor and the uninsured from using them. I saw this just last week. My regular doctor operates his office as an urgent care, but I go there for all my regular care as do a lot of his patients. I went in to get routine prescription refills. A young woman and her BF came in; she thought she was having an allergic reaction to something. She didn't have insurance and couldn't pay $40 cash for the visit. She ended up heading over to the ER where she could get seen without having to pay up front (she'll still get billed, and may or may not pay).

My local hospital has an urgent care, but it's usually only staffed 12-16 hours a day, and sometimes is closed if a PA or NP isn't available to fill the shift. The ER is so busy that sometimes get get ER overflow, which really slows everything down. Wait times depend a lot on who is working. Some of the PAs/NPs are really efficient and get people in and out fast. Some of them are damned lazy and drag things out so they won't have to work. Very frustrating.

Depending on your case, you either got sent back directly to a bed in the ER or over to a different waiting room for the urgent care. As a result, the triage room was never full, ER beds never got used for non-emergent cases, and even on the urgent care side, things moved fairly swiftly. Honestly wish all hospitals used this model.

For this model to work, you have to have adequate staffing. My hospital makes a token effort to use this model. But the urgent care isn't always open, and even when it is it is not always staffed appropriately.

Worse, administration established about 10 "hall beds" on a permanent basis but didn't add any more nurses. As a result patients get put in a bed . . . and sit there. And sit there. And sit there. Until someone gets freed up to actually do some patient care.

Had a mother get upset the other day b/c they had waited an hour to be seen. Her daughter had a fever and NEEDED TO BE SEEN NOWWW!! When she was asked how long her daughter had a fever the answer was something in the ballpark of like 18 hours. When asked when the last time she had had any medications to help control the fever, the answer was never. So youre concerned so much about the fever you don't give her anything for it all day but 18 hours later its a damn emergency.

Oh, I used to see sooooo much of this when I was still working the ER.

Had one dad literally screaming at me and challenging my competency when I told him his kid could wait; I'd given her some pedi tylenol and the kid was already doing better.

When he asked me how I could be so sure she could wait, I said, "Because her fever is gone and she's running around laughing and playing. And her chief complaint is an earache."

Shut him up quick.

Last time I was in the ER was with my wife.. on Valentine's Day of all days. She was pregnant with our daughter and she started having really bad back pain and having shortness of breath (really bad signs). We walked in and she was taken straight back to a bed bypassing a lot of people.

As well she should. Pregnant and SHOB are a bad combination; makes you a number one priority.

Fast forward two months later and when they were examining the placenta after our daughter was born.. they found a part where it detached (but healed over). I asked the doctor if it could come from that and they said that it might have come from that, but other than that it was a very uneventful pregnancy.

I'm not really surprised. What you are described is abruptio placentae or a placental abruption, when the placenta partially tears away from the uterine wall. Some of these tears are really small and can be missed on ultrasound. Small ones are just watched and the pregnancy often proceeds just fine.

It explains her symptoms. Had it been identified she would have been classified as a high risk pregnancy and watched more closely.

Hell, every time I've ever been to the hospital I've always had a long wait. Even when I wound up needing emergency surgery for my perforated bowel, I still had to wait a few hours before even being taken back into a room, and a few hours after that before the doctor even got to me.

Of course, nobody realized just how sick I was (not even me) until the doctor called a surgeon down to look at me and the surgeon announced how bad off I really was, so I'm not surprised or even upset that what turned out to be a life-or-death situation for me was treated like a non-emergency, since that's what I had first assumed it to be when I went to the hospital.

I'm always very careful about abdominal pain complaints. If I have to keep them in the waiting room, I watch them carefully and get them back as soon as I can. Most forms of belly pain and/or N/V/D are just a simple stomach flu (gastroenteritis) and self resolve.

But you never know if you are dealing with an appendix or bad gallbladder, obstructed bowel or perfed bowel.

Lets see:

10:00 am - Broke (almost crushed) leg in a bicycle accident.
10:45 am (ish) - in ER and taken in quickly to a bed.
7:30 pm - get leg set. *

Me - 10 years old. And is loathed to go to a hospital/doctor since.

*My parents thought - and then realized - the doc needed to sober up first. He was later dismissed from the hospital and had a bedside manor that would make Vlad the Impaler look like Mother Theresa.

B

Sweet jesus, why the hell didn't the staff call in another doctor, or call the nursing supervisor?? That could have very serious, and what if a heart attack had come in?

If I thought a doc was impaired, I would be on the phone to the nursing sup demanding another MD be called in, and the drunk sent home.

Mine was a gall-stone attack. I went in at 4am with only two people ahead of me and I still had to wait 2.5 hours. Did I whine? No. (Although I did beg to go home when the attack finally ended (it had gone on for 8+ hours at that point) and got called just as I was about to head out the door.)

That's a common complaint of patients in the ER; there are only a couple other patients in the waiting room and yet the wait is long. That usually means the back is full. One of the problems we deal with in the ER is "boarding" of patients in the ER while we wait for rooms on the floor to open up.

Turned out it was meningitis, but only the viral kind. By the time of the CT scan it had mostly gone, or so they said. I was only disappointed that I didn't get to see the picture of my noggin, but breaking my 'hospital virginity' as it were wasn't overly bad an experience, for which I do consider myself lucky.

Viral meningitis can still make you really sick. Still, glad it was nothing serious.

Last time I went to the ER for something serious, I had broken and dislocated my ulna and radius.
THAT was when they screwed up, however.
...they x-ray me...
...they see the problem...
...and they DON'T put me in traction.
Nope, they put me in a splint and send me home with good drugs. Not complaining about the good drugs.
Nay, nay.
I'm complaining that they NEVER once put my arm in traction.

You probably didn't need traction. You probably needed surgery that night to reduce the dislocation and realign the fracture. That's what I've usually seen done for that kind of injury. Since it was WC I'm surprised it wasn't done right away. Orthopods are notorious for splinting and casting inappropriately, especially for the uninsured, but this should have been covered.

Putting an arm in traction would have required hospitalization anyway . . . which still would have been covered by WC. So your treatment is very puzzling.

OK, I'm a little lost here, is viral meningitis considered to be less harmful than the bacterial kind? (it's like 12:15am here)

Viral menengitis usually self resolves. The symptoms are usually far less serious, and patients usually make a full recovery.

Bacterial is another story. Cerebrospinal fluid (that lubricates your brain and spinal cord) is very sweet; a perfect medium for bacterial growth. Late teens through early 20's is a prime age group that gets this, and it can be deadly. Hospital staff who are exposed usually get a preventative dose of Cipro, because it is very contagious. Fortunately, there is a vaccine for it.

[Eisa]

The last time I had to go to the ER, I was already in the hospital. I was with my wife, who was having an extended EEG done for her seizures ((iirc she had to stay for 4 days?)). I managed to flip out of the recliner and sprain my ankle. So they had me go down to the ER and get X-rays to make sure it wasn't broken.

In and back up to her room in like an hour or so. I got crutches and a prescription for pain meds. Worst part was explaining to twenty million people how exactly I hurt myself...

[Rosakala]

I must have been freakishly lucky. Had my dad take me to the ER at 1am on a Friday/Saturday night. There was absolutely no one there. From the sounds of things I might have been pulled back fairly quickly, as I was complaining about abdominal pain and the fact I hadn't kept anything down, including fluids, for the past 48 hours.

As it turned out, I had gall stones and my gall bladder had to go immediately! But they had to wait to do the surgery. Something in my Pancreas was like stupid high and it had to go down before they could operate it. And they wouldn't allow me to eat or drink either because it could possibly cause it to flare up again. I ended up going a total 5 days before being allowed to finally drink fluids again.