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Originally Posted by skip0358
Yes the Emergency Room gets backed up just about all the time. Can't be refused treatment so people go there period. Had to take our Granddaughter there the other night. Asthma attack. Walked in , filled out the paperwork and she was brought in and treatment was started end of story. While we were waiting for her I saw a ton of walking wounded as we called them when I rode the Ambulance come in didn't look any sicker then I was. Some watched TV some ate & drank coffee, some took a nap, others I think came in for the Air Conditioning. My point this bogs down the ER period. So yep an other patient coming in who may really have a problem has to wait. Others try the old call an Ambulance trick, if their not down & out enough they to go and sit for long periods of time. Sometimes it just sucks more being sick.
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You are correct. A patient can only see what they can see----that is a full waiting room with people sitting around, some people who come after them getting seen first, and a whole bunch complaining about the wait. This is not a first come, first serve situation. About 1/2 the people in that ER waiting room are accompanying a patient, not one themselves. When you tell the receptionist your problem, there is an immediate preliminary triage that shows on the nurses' computer screen. You then see a RN who does a full triage, which the physician uses to prioritize cases. To the casual observer, it looks like nothing is happening, but in reality each patient is already in a queue and probably the ER doc has developed a preliminary plan to evaluate the patient.
When my wife was there in March, there were about 17 patients and a total of about 30 people in the waiting room. Glancing around (and this is just a guesstimate) my impression was that I could treat 15 of the 17 in my office, 1 at urgent care, and the 1 remaining patient was a close enough call to justify her presence. I have no idea of the severity of the illnesses that were already in an ER room.
Also, at least in NY, it was cheaper for a Medicaid patient to take an $800 ambulance ride to the ER than to call a $6 car service, so emergency vehicles were being abused for $3. We eventually fixed some of this by having ambulance crews with non-urgent cases take the patient to the waiting room and register as if they walked in