2 hour wait in ER, should I be pissedoff?

[Joe Bob]

So....as some of you know, I had a recent appendicitis. My 10PM visit found the place packed. I was greeted, blood taken and insurance scanned.....and told to wait....I guess at 50 years old, I was not a prime candidate for rupture....

I passed out twice, had no pain meds offered despite repeated requests and was sent to the end of the line while, sniffles, flu, booboos were taken ahead of me. I was cut on after diganosis via an MRI and blood work showed an elevated white count.

I called and spoke with the ER Supervisor who could really give a schitski...said she would "review the issue". It's been a week and no call back.

I got a standard "how did we do" survey in the mail and spewed venom all over it....I'm contemplating a "you suck letter" to the editor......

The place was full of wandering homeless, bulletproof glass and bored teenagers fresh out of nursing school with a limited English speaking volunteer up front that got people to fill out a questionaire prior to stepping up to the "portal of truth". This isn't downtown crack hell, it's Santa Barbara for chrisakes.....

I pay 5K a year out of pocket to cover myself and family. I get less service than someone who lives in a box at the freeway underpass.....

[TheMentat]

wow... isn't that sort of experience reserved for publicly funded healthcare?

[NICKG]

it depends, did they amputate the wrong part? or sew your ass closed?
either way it sucks..I once sat in an er with a 9" gash on my thigh from a grinder(it cut to bone..and then halfway thru that) I had to waid 25 minutes till they saw all the kids with coughs and ear aches...good thing it did not cut an artery...when i got up to go in i was lightheaded and left a 3 foot pool behind...followed by bloody foot prints to the er room...where in the physician promptly shat that i had to wait....the girls that waited on me at the desk were not there the next time I went..

I will never forger, the fat on the top of your thigh looks like chicken fat and the muscle is like corned beef....

[Jims5543]

Yup!

My little guy was sick as could be and we were worried he may be dehydrated. He had a doctors office visit scheduled for Monday morning. We called our docs office and got the service, a doctor called back and told us to go to the ER.

We got in there, the waiting room was empty, good sign, and just like you were processed pretty fast, insurance info taken, blood pressure, temp..... blah blah blah.


Then they took us into the back......

I cannot begin to describe how many people were in "the back". Every room was filled, the hallway was full of bads with people everywhere. I turned to the nurse at this point and asked very directly, "How long are we going to be here?" She gave me a non answer. I asked again, she would not answer. I turned around and walked out. With the nurse following telling me I should think about my sons best interests....

I turned back around to her and told her I was, its in his best interest not to be stuck in this hellhole all night when he could be in the comfort of his own home.

MY wife took him to the doctors office the next day after a some what decent nights sleep and he was treated there.

I will avoid all ER's as much as possible from here on.

[K. Roman]

A friend of mine recently broke his...***** while having sex with an aggressive girl. This was at 2am. He waited from 3am until 7am to be looked at. Ouch. So, maybe 2 hours ain't so bad!

[RickM]

Long story short....I had half a toothpick lodged in my voice box. Ambulance takes me to ER. I couldn't swallow because of the pain and I was petrified that I'd vomit and choke to death (seriously).

Triage nurses couldn't give a $hit. I did my best to complain and they looked at me as if I flashed them.

After waiting for half hour a woman walks in who couldn't speak one word of english. She complained that she vomited earlier and may be pregnant........low and behold 3 nurses and a doc rush out and escort her directly to an examination room. NICE!

Turns out I was there for over twelve hours, enduring one fukc up after another.

So, I can feel your pain.

[Rikao4]

Having worked in several ER's , Mike imo you were not triaged properly.
Mind you alot stuff can come thru the backdoor, and if bad ....will go ahead of those in the lobby.
ER triage is serious , you got an idiot.
Rika

[cgarr]

Wow, thats a long time since you were in so much pain, and I know what its like, I had the same thing and so have my kids. I was just in a month ago with kidney stones again and they had me hooked up with pain meds in less than 10 min. Yours could have been real serious and died, you will never die from kidney stones, I hope?

[jwhcars]

ER rooms have turned into the poor's doctors office-They should be limited to EMERGENCY only
cases.and PRINT what is not an EMERGENCY In BOLD Signage posted in several languages.
Then throw the damn people out who do not need to be there.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

wow... isn't that sort of experience reserved for publicly funded healthcare?

What do you think the ER is? Why is it so expensive for the paying customers.


First of all, 2 hours is not long to be chillin' in an ER bed. You go by who looks like they will die the soonest if you don't do anything and take them first. I always tell my diabetics to call me before they go to the hospital. It can take a long time to die from a foot infection, generally if someone is fixin' to croak on you, they start looking worse and you can wheel them over to an OR real quick, if that looks like the thing to do.

If they were even thinking appy, they would not let you eat or drink anything, pain pills included. As far as parenteral meds, appendix is pretty much surgical, acute type of deal. Perhaps anesthesia at that facility gets their panties in a wad if some body comes up all full of opiates when they need to induce general anesthesia, I have heard them complain about that in the past while I was at the other end of the bed swinging the knife around.

I always say, "Pain is a gift from God." It lets you know when something is wrong, or trying to go more wrong. That said, I would have probably hit you with some dilaudid or something if you were making the Mr Ick face too much.

[nynor]

nope, they got you in pretty damn quick, actually. plus, taking your blood right away was pretty good on their part and that test probably took over an hour to get back anyway, so they weren't sure yet what was going on. plus, they can't give you anything by mouth as that can interfere if you need surgery.

i work in the medical field with 4.5 years in the ER. they did a good job.

as for kicking those persons out that just have colds, believe me, they'd love to do so. but, there are laws. and then there are cases where they DO kick those folks out and they die. its a quagmire.

[Joe Bob]

Originally Posted by Tobra

What do you think the ER is? Why is it so expensive for the paying customers.


First of all, 2 hours is not long to be chillin' in an ER bed. You go by who looks like they will die the soonest if you don't do anything and take them first. I always tell my diabetics to call me before they go to the hospital. It can take a long time to die from a foot infection, generally if someone is fixin' to croak on you, they start looking worse and you can wheel them over to an OR real quick, if that looks like the thing to do.

If they were even thinking appy, they would not let you eat or drink anything, pain pills included. As far as parenteral meds, appendix is pretty much surgical, acute type of deal. Perhaps anesthesia at that facility gets their panties in a wad if some body comes up all full of opiates when they need to induce general anesthesia, I have heard them complain about that in the past while I was at the other end of the bed swinging the knife around.

I always say, "Pain is a gift from God." It lets you know when something is wrong, or trying to go more wrong. That said, I would have probably hit you with some dilaudid or something if you were making the Mr Ick face too much.

ER BED? I was in the ******* doorway sitting in a ******* wheelchair, freezing my ass off....screaming kids in three different languages saying they wanted to go home.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by jwhcars

ER rooms have turned into the poor's doctors office-They should be limited to EMERGENCY only
cases.and PRINT what is not an EMERGENCY In BOLD Signage posted in several languages.
Then throw the damn people out who do not need to be there.

this whole thing here just totally slays me, I literally fell out of my chair


chair in the cold breezy hallway, bed, room, gurney against the wall, whatever, 2 hours is pretty damn fast, considering. I would have given you a found you a gurney and got you a blanket to go with your dilaudid if I had been there, but I am just over flowing with the milk of human kindness.

[dhoward]

Eh, sick white guy.
Who cares....

[nynor]

this is the typical rant from folks at the ER. sorry you had appendicitis and sorry you were in pain. i guess everyone wants satisfaction five minutes ago.

[NICKG]

Originally Posted by RickM

Long story short....I had half a toothpick lodged in my voice box. Ambulance takes me to ER. I couldn't swallow because of the pain and I was petrified that I'd vomit and choke to death (seriously).

Triage nurses couldn't give a $hit. I did my best to complain and they looked at me as if I flashed them.

After waiting for half hour a woman walks in who couldn't speak one word of english. She complained that she vomited earlier and may be pregnant........low and behold 3 nurses and a doc rush out and escort her directly to an examination room. NICE!

Turns out I was there for over twelve hours, enduring one fukc up after another.

So, I can feel your pain.

rick, what hospital? Morristown?

[gchappel]

Are you sure they did an MRI- would be an unusual test through the ER for appendicitis.
Two hours sounds bad, but not that bad and we really don't know what else was going on. You were stable- although uncomfortable- and it sounds like you went to surgery quickly. We all think that if we show up in the ER we will be seen within minutes. It depends on your condition and what else if going on. It only takes one REALLY critically ill patient to tie the ER up for hours. I'll bet you if you walked in with crushing chest pain- or some other unstable situation you would have been seen quicker than 2 hours. To the triage people you probably didn't look a whole lot sicker than the other pain/cold/headache patients that were sitting around. Until you were diagnosed they would not likely give you pain meds- as they could mask other symptoms. Our ER's are being overrun and used like a walk in clinic. Until that is changed stable patients will likely wait. I live in central Florida- and 2 hour wait here is nothing. Next time call your private doctor- they can usually move you though the system faster.
Gary

[Halm]

Sounds like SOP to me. Last week my 90 year old dad was set to the ER by a nurse at his independent living facility for pneumonia. I met him there and we waited about 2 hours as well. Same set of surrounding circumstances.

Rikao4 suggests you weren't triaged properly. I agree. This was my dad's 3rd visit to the same facility in 4 months for pneumonia and he had been sent there by another health professional. They could give a $hit less. And now 5 days later, x-rays show he still has pneumonia in his lungs and they are going to send him home!!!

GOOD GRIEF!!!

[RickM]

Yes Nick. Happened about two years ago.

Went there a few weeks ago for stitches and it was a much better experience.

[craigster59]

I don't know NickG, a grinder thru the thigh and halfway thru the bone? Who was helping you, Johnco?