Where are George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Anthony Edwards, and Eriq KaSalle when I need them? Those TV docs from the 1990s hit show ER are not what I encounter when I need to go to the emergency room. Instead, I wait hours to see any medical staff at all, which is why I do anything I can to avoid the ER.
There has to be a better way to deliver medical care. ER waiting rooms are just another broken part of our system.
In January, I had severe back and leg pain and was running a fever. When the thermometer read almost 103, my husband and I decided it was time to go to the emergency room. We chose a hospital with what we believed would be a shorter wait than the one closest to us. The waiting room was not very crowded, but people were not being called in to see medical staff. After five hours, it was finally my turn. What I saw in the ER was many empty rooms and very few staff members. I was given pain relief medications and an ultrasound to see if I had a DVT. When they wanted to admit me, I declined. If I was going to be hospitalized, I wanted to be in the hospital closest to where I live. This was a sister hospital in the same network, so I stupidly assumed I would be admitted with no fuss. I was so weak that I needed a paramedic to lift me into the car.
I went home to get a few things and slid to the floor. It was the classic “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” My husband called the EMTs and I had my first ambulance ride ever. I stupidly believed that patients arriving by ambulance went straight to the ER. Wrong. They put me in a wheel chair and I went straight to … the waiting room. We naively explained that we had already waited five hours at the sister hospital. It didn’t matter. There was no credit for time served. Six hours later, I was finally in the ER, where they admitted me to the hospital. That was a total of 11 hours of waiting in pain before I was seen by medical personnel.
A friend of mine had a similar experience at the same hospital’s waiting room. During her time there, a man fell out of his wheel chair onto the floor. When she approached the triage nurse to inform her, she was told they already knew about the problem but had to wait for medical personnel to lift him from the floor to his wheel chair … so he could continue waiting. For reasons like these, I avoid the ER. Immediate Care can be spotty in the skills of the personnel who deal with minor emergencies, but they don’t make sick people wait for hours to be seen. There has to be a better way to deliver medical care. ER waiting rooms are just another broken part of our system.
Laurie LevyBoomer. Educator. Advocate. Eclectic topics: grandkids, special needs, values, aging, loss, & whatever. Author: Terribly Strange and Wonderfully Real.
Another reason to be grateful for my ongoing good health. – thanks.
What a horrible story, Laurie! I remember when you told us you’d had medical difficulties. I hope you are better now, but oh, my word, this is just appalling! Over the past two days, I heard a doctor speak about care and compassion (she works and teaches in Atlanta and is trying to spread the word), but also about burnout, and how doctor’s practices and hospitals are being bought by private equity chains and just soaked for profits and of course, so much is dictated by insurance (and malpractice fears, which I’m sure is why no one picked the person up and put him back in his wheelchair). A question came up about nurses unionizing. She had reservations about. A long-time labor lawyer spoke about needing better working conditions, etc. But a long-time doctor rebutted that people DO get sick in the night and doctors and nurses need to teach their bodies to be able to function through long hours and into the night. It is NOT a 9-5 job. They can’t scrub out of an operation mid-way through because their shift ended. I saw his point.
These are the arguments that are going on in the medical professions that you got caught up in. It is all horrid and could get a lot worse, I fear. I am so sorry to hear your story. It is unacceptable.
Thanks, Betsy. I’m fine now, but at my age trips to the ER are inevitable. We need urgent care to be able to do a bit more, at least where I live. My sister-in-law in Michigan was able to get an IV for dehydration at hers. In my neck of the woods, I have to go to the ER and wait hours for the same treatment. Our system is controlled by insurance companies and corporate ownership of hospitals. It’s pretty bad out here. Stay healthy!
Oh dear Laurie, that long ER wait is indeed unforgivable.
I have seen a vast difference between ERs in the big city where I’ve waited for hours and at a good ex-urban hospital where I’ve been ushered right in!
When I really need an ER I’ll try to be in the country!
Good plan, Dana. Unfortunately you can’t control where you get sick. Our system of healthcare is pretty messed up.
Let’s all try to stay healthy!