Posted on 11/06/2026 3:27:54 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
You are in the emergency room. You have been told you are being admitted. And then, you wait. And wait. Four, 12, maybe even 24 hours, still stuck in the E.R., waiting for a bed to open up.
This new normal in American hospitals is about to intensify.
The practice of keeping patients in the E.R., called “boarding,” for hours or even days has been increasing over the past decade. One in four patients who were admitted through the E.R. spent at least four hours waiting in the E.R. before getting a bed in September 2024, compared with one in eight in September 2017, according to a paper in Health Affairs. The rate of people boarded in the E.R. for at least 24 hours tripled during that time.
“It is, in fact, much worse than it has ever been, and only expected to get worse,” said Dr. Alexander Janke, an emergency doctor and assistant professor at the University of Michigan Medical School who co-wrote the study.
E.R.’s are designed to be way stations where patients get assessed, admitted if necessary and then transferred into wards for specialized attention and care. Increasingly, in America’s overcrowded hospitals, they are turning into medical waiting rooms, creating vulnerabilities for patients who aren’t being seen by the right specialists.
From April through June of 2026, the median amount of time patients spent in the E.R. waiting for an inpatient hospital bed rose to five hours, up 25% from the year prior, according to Vizient, a consulting firm.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
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IF I go to the local ER....not many Americans there as patients.
Just put an ICE agent there and they’d stay away
The Obamacare “death panels” have spoken.
I have experienced this.
“Just put an ICE agent there and they’d stay away”
Post of the day.
Well done.
Well, by all means lets have Medicare for all. Instead of a 24 hour wait it could be 3, 4 maybe 5 days. Of course, some poor shmucks may die before they get to see the doctor but then again, it’s one less person the government has to support. Look how much money will be saved. But it’s FREE!!
That's the plan.
I drove myself to St. Joes in Reading and was keeled over as my appendix was rupturing, I think I waited 20 minutes (and it was busy), they took my blood, threw me in a wheelchair, got me upstairs, cat scan, morphine, removed it the next day, home in 2. I was lucky...
Gonna get a lot worse when the Democrats throw open the southern boarder let they let the 5 million or more flood the country. The Democrats will happily let you and I pay for them.
people do know that patients are dumped at hospitals and need assisted or full care and nobody will take them so they sit in a bed for several months.. Your tax dollars at work.
Take a guess at how many of them are alcoholics who tanked after a 6 week bender etc, or drug addicts going through withdrawal.
A few years ago, I took my wife to ER in the early morning hours. All the patients were either Mexican and Central American and a few blacks. My wife is from Mexico and could identify their individual accents. We had insurance but I doubt most of them did.
Nothing new...I was in the hall 2 years ago..
Socialist medicine tends to do that.
Huh, really?
My doctor sent me straight to the emergency room with a prescription order for tests to be done. I went to Admitting instead of the emergency room entrance like my doctor told me. The Emergency room and ER Doctors came and got in me in less than 10 minutes and began the hours of tests.
Leg swelled up couldnt walk, Deep Vein Thrombosis, Blood Clot in Knee. Shot and blood thinners
A lot of it is because Medicare Advantage lets you stay in the ER for 24 hours without having to be admitted. It actually saves money. My mom did it once and we were able to take her home the next day so it did not cost anything extra. The ER room was pretty nice.
When I fell on black ice the day after Christmas last year, and broke my left femur, left elbow and left shoulder blade, the ambulance drivers and I, sat in the hallway outside the ER for at least 2-3 hours before I was wheeled into the hallway of the ER area. They had to cut my jeans off me, in order to be able to slip my butt onto a bedpan so I could relieve myself. I was never put in a triage room, and sat there, between two nurse’s stations for several more hours until they finally took me up to a hospital room around 2 in the morning.
Me local ER has beds & tiny rooms which are nice until room-rooms open upstairs. I was there a few weeks ago, and Attending Doc was a young, white, male doctor, which seems rare nowadays.
our ER isn’t quite that bad BUT you still have to wait at least 8 hours min to be seen now-
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