I will comment on a couple of things here.
It looked to me, like the waiting area covered not only emergency, but a clinic as well. Those that were there for little things ended up coming out a different set of doors. There were a bunch of people that fell into that category the last time I was in ER. Might be the way to go.
I would only add that people be persistent. You know your body better than anyone else. My first visit to ER for severe abdominal pain, vomiting, got me a total stay of 4 hours and an antibiotic for a bladder infection. I told them I was concerned about a hernia was diagnosed with back in December. They did take an xray but said everything was fine.
Two days later 9am I was right back there with the same symptoms except that the vomiting is dark green, so green it looked black. This visit lasted 8 hours. CT scan and xrays. No blockage. Prescription for pain and anti nausea.
8pm vomiting the contrast, 11pm right back to ER carrying my trusty bucket and still vomiting the dark green fluid. Total stay about 5 hours with new prescription for different anti nausea and instructions to call a particular Dr in the morning for an appt.
Vomiting in the Dr's office gets me placed in the hospital. Surgery at 8 that night. The hernia had twisted and a section of the intestines had turned purple.
I told them on each visit about the hernia. The first two visits they didn't even palpate the abdomen. What's up with that? Why do not listen to the patient? Sometimes we might actually know what is happening. ok rant over,
Wow, I’m sorry you went through that. Hope you’re feeling better now! (And better tomorrow ;).)
Here’s one thing I’m picking up from this discussion:
On the original thread I touched on it, but now I see a better way to articulate it.
The ER really should serve two purposes. Screening (is *emergency* care needed?) and treatment (if *emergency* care is needed).
If the ER screened and then turned away people who did not need *emergency* treatment, they would have a lot more time and resources to do better screening.
Hells Bells, most of the time I can pick out several patients in the waiting room who are going to end up receiving NO TREATMENT WHATSOEVER, yet are clogging up the system for many, many hours. The biggest example of this is the baby brought in because she has a cough, a runny nose, or “can’t breath” (excuse me?), yet while in the waiting room, she sits there playing happily with the magazines, crawling around, laughing at Grandma, making faces at bystanders, etc. In short, the baby that most parents realize is is NO WAY in an emergency situation.
That baby should have been screened and released immediately in one fell swoop. There is nothing that is going to happen in the back beyond what the intake nurse with temperature and other vitals. Give mom a flier that says give your baby TLC, plenty of fluids, rest and a warm bath if fussy. Please.
Because the ER starts with the assumption that EVERY PATIENT will get some kind of examination by a doctor (add four hours) and then some kind of “treatment” (even if it’s “rest, fluids, etc.”) and some kind of prescription (for OTC pain relivers or Pepto Bismal . . . basic Dr. Mom stuff), no patient ever gets bumped out of line without completing a often worthless 8-10 hour stint.
ERs should screen and release if no emergency is found and there is no indication of the need for additional tests.
This, I think, would allow ERs to improve their screening process for everyone.