[Warren Kiefer]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Keep in mind what triage does. It is someone who makes the call who is seen first and if I remember correctly, I am not a medical person, that constitutes people with immediate life threatening emergencies, such as those unable to breathe, severe blood loss, strokes and heart attacks.

Broken bones, severe pain, cuts that are not hemoraghing, severe sprains, stomach pain without fever, etc,etc,etc,....all terrible and ugly and awful but not immediately life threatening.

We had a friend who snowbirds and who had a blood seepage into the brain from being on blood thinners and she was given a CT scan in the ER and had to stay overnight on a bed in the hall there until she could be given a room, but she was being observed and her vitals were taken, at the proper intervals but she wasn't in a comfortable private room. She was telling us last night that she was then content with the care given her. She like many of us who have the problems of age where she must take blood thinners or she gets clots in her legs and too much can cause a brain bleed. Her problem was indeed serious.

Serious and life theatening but not immediately life threatening but they were watching her for any change that would make her condition immediately life threatening.

No one should have to sit in an emergency room for up to 12 hours. If this is the case, then the facility is not large enough to treat both the more serious and also the less serious. Backlogs do happen but they should not be the norm in any hospital. There should be staff and provisions, perhaps at another area, to treat the less serious while the more serious are being given the necessary accute care in the ER.