Luck plays a big part in how long you will wait. This happens in Walmart too. Sometimes I go to check-out and there's no line at all. No waiting.

Perhaps we need to know what the average wait time is. If some have to wait 5 - 10 hours, I'm sure they won't feel any better knowing that Doug only waited a few minutes because he got lucky.

Pursuant to that... I went to the ER in Key West in 2005 (PS: don't ever go there). I waited two hours just to be triaged. I watched people with cuts & bruises being seen ahead of me. After another five hours, I went to the desk and said, "I've been waiting here for seven hours." They said, "No, you came in at noon." I said, "No, you triaged me at noon! I came in here at 10:00." Turns out the type of x-ray I needed was not available that day, and they just let me sit there!

While having an ultrasound instead (the tech's husband was from Pittsburgh), I left my Steelers sweatshirt on a peg in the room. When I returned the next morning to get it, of course it was gonzo.

The only reason I went to the ER to begin with was because my medical insurance person told me they would not pay for a visit to KW's only urgent care center.

Staffing probably needs to increase particularly with the increase in rooms. Waiting is waiting, whether in the waiting room or an ER room. What is the nurse to patient ratio in the hospital?

For those who might be wondering, I called Urgent Care @ Buffalo Ridge and was told that they do pretty much everything except heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary aneurysms.

That's fairly simple to remember.

I imagine there might also be a big difference between summer and winter.

When the hospital expansion is finished, I would like to see them offer the following with a big sign in their waiting room: "If anyone has to wait more than one hour, we will pay their deductible or give a discount to cash customers."

They already discount for cash customers - ask next time you're in there. My wife just went through this and got three quotes depending on whether it was cash or insurance or some combo.

Nurse to patient ratio in TVRH:


Medical & Cardiac & Surgical Floors - 6 to 1
IMCU 4-1
ICU 2-1


Probably the same as most hospitals.

Just looked online @ Leesburg Regional. ER waiting time is 16 minutes, and TVRH is 3 minutes! Anyone need to go now?

Recently, I went to both urgent care and the ER on the same day, a Saturday. The condition was misdiagnosed by the PA at the urgent care center in the morning. By nightfall I landed in The Villages ER, and the triage nurse immediately made the correct diagnosis. The only wait was finding someone who could start an IV, after two failed attempts. That took well over an hour. The doctor was super.

If they do not improve their processes throughput will not change.

It depends, right? I was at the ER twice last year and was triaged and treated by the physician both times within 15 min of arrival. This was for cardiac problems -- if I had gone in with a broken wrist, I'm sure it would have been a different story.

The time of day is a huge factor as well. One visit was around 6am Sunday morning and there were maybe 2-3 people waiting. On a Wed night at 7pm, the waiting room was so full that there were no available chairs.

I've heard about discounts being given for cash but wasn't sure about the hospital ER. But a regular discount leaves out the time element. Shouldn't they get a bigger discount if they are made to wait longer than one hour?

Or will they just end up raising all their prices to pay for the discounts? :icon_wink:

I do believe that if you don't have insurance and can't pay the ER has to take you where the urgent care can refuse you. There for the ER is usually full.

One thing that people don't understand is that part of your wait time back in the emergency room itself is that whatever testing they do has to be processed somewhere else in the hospital. Consider that you ("you" used collectively) are not the only patient whose tests are being run/evaluated. They are done for the entire hospital in many instances. This takes time, so regardless of the addition of more rooms, this will still be the case.

Also, the Villages Hospital is not just for Villagers.

Just sayin'.