[RedChariot]

Originally Posted by Warren Kiefer

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.

Ok I'm going to venture into this thread again against my better judgement. Last time another poster pretty much told me I did not know standards of care because I was in Nursing Administration. What? Who do you think sees to it that hospital policy is adheared to? Anyway, on this issue of being in the ER for so many hours. The state required adequate care to the ER patient that is admitted and no available beds in house. We built a seperate area. Patients were taken off the ER stretcher and put in a hospital bed. I had to see that there was adequate staffing for that ER holding area. We even had critical patients on ventilators. Critical Care certified RNs were staffed there. In addition Medical-Surgical patients were held there with Med/Surg certified RNs. Too many situations can present themselves in acute care to discuss here. We had to find the answer.