My earliest experiences with waiting rooms were rather non-existent. That is to say, at 3, my parents rushed me to the ER when my pinky finger was tightly lodged in the fold of a folding chair. I remember the extraordinary pain and leaving with a splint on the finger. If I waited, I know it wasn’t long because it would, for me, have been memorable. When 4, I remember arriving on time to my pediatrician’s office, which was in his home, and was immediately ushered into the exam room. Later, at 8 or 9, while visiting cousins in Toledo, my stomach erupted in fierce pain and so was taken to the ER. If I had to wait while in extraordinary pain, I know I would have remembered. What I recall is being taken in immediately and leaving promptly, and thankfully, in good health.
Fast forward to now. Waiting is the epitome (or embodiment) of passivity. Who’s to say the venerable Triage nurse has aptly assigned patients according to their need, or correct appointment time? People, let’s take back our power. How about converting the waiting room into a game of musical chairs. Someone starts a tune on their smart phone and all the waiters rush to sit in a chair before the tune stops. Inevitably, someone will be left standing. Let the loser be the winner and he or she gets to go in first.
The world’s gone crazy, why shouldn’t the waiting room follow suit?
Carol Isaacson Barash
Your memories are apt – you were in pain and you were seen promptly. Now the system is broken. Too many emergencies, not enough time or people seeing them. People use emergency rooms for their healthcare. I fear it will only get worse.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the system is horribly broken, health is a more complicated quest and many doctors regrettably aren’t up to the task because medical education is slow on the uptake when it comes to proven innovations, and as you say it will only get worse because there are already too few doctors, and people are less willing to take on the debt it takes to enter the profession. May we all avoid them as much as possible.
Thanx for the laugh at the end of your serious story Carol, and good to see you writing this week!
My elderly uncle was often rushed to the ER for various issues and as his next of kin we were always notified and would go to meet him at whatever New York hospital it was.
Hopefully the medical staffs were doing their best, but chaos often reigned, with narrow bays separated by curtains, gurneys in hallways for the overflow of patients waiting for rooms, cops and firemen bringing in bloody victims of heaven knows what, people screaming and cursing in many languages , even a fist fight or two.
It was New York after all.
Thanks Dana! Glad I made you laugh!
Yikes re: your ER memories. Sounds much like the time I volunteered at Cook County hospital and then worked at another Chicago hospital- where, yes, every full moon gun shot victims came rushing in.
Fortunate that waiting was not seared into your memory; was not part of your experience.
Nice idea to jazz up the waiting room–but don’t expect people in genuine pain to eagerly jump up to play!
Thanks for the comment! Agreed. Besides we’re getting to the age where getting up and running fast can be problematic 🙂
Your experience is so common that we now react in wonderment when we are seen promptly, kindly and efficiently. Still a worthy goal!
agree!