[ilovetv]

Friends who are ER drs. and nurses often talk of how elderly patients are in multi-system failure and have so many complex things to work up that they are in ER for hours and hours and hours. Also, they talk a lot about how they have to wait and wait for labs and things to come back from other departments....and sluggish computer systems that lag behind the drs.' work pace seem to be the norm. When all the information is in the computer (as is the case most places now), and the software is slow, slow, slow, they can't access the needed info fast enough, and then other depts. like lab and radiology etc. often don't get results back to them in a reasonable time. And then they have to wait for people upstairs to get people admitted and out of the ER when everything is full.

It doesn't sound easy at all to me, but people often demand service as fast as McDonalds. Traumas, heart attacks, strokes etc. cannot be viewed like serving burgers.