Don't believe the online wait time for the TVRH ED. Took my husband, said wait time was 29 minutes; waited 5 hours. Triage nurse poor diagnostician; husband had emergency surgery in a.m. Surgeon said if it had been much longer, could have resulted in permanent damage or death.

That is correct. At least until the ER physician determined you do not have an emergency condition. However, having said that, most ER docs will err on the side that provides the least amount of legal risk for the doc and the hospital.

An urgent care center is not bound by the same federal law (EMTALA).

Right on! More space does not necessarily eliminate numerous potential bottlenecks. These include (but are not limited to): triage, volunteer receptionists with no medical training, staff shortages, physician coverage, physician extenders, and poor processes that are within and without the ER such as lab and radiology.

Remember that just because the ER must take you - doesn't mean that it's free if you don't have insurance or medicare. They just can't refuse service. But you still OWE the bill. Yes there are some people that will never even pay a dime of it but that doesn't mean that it's not a debt.

5 min.
 

5 minutes it takes that long to do the paper work. who are you kidding ? trying to make the er look good ha.

Poor Processes?
 

Unless labs and radiology are set up on a one-to-one basis (totally cost prohibitive, by the way), it will always take time which does not equate to "poor processes".