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My coworker waited 11 hours to be seen.

She is back today. Her spouse had a major abscess internally as a complication from a gall bladder surgery.

They were told to wait outside or go home, as the waiting room was full (still is, no matter what the website says). She said there were people laying on the floor. Bad flu/RSV/ whatever outbreak.

The stiches ruptured and the abscess burst at home, which at least meant they got an ambulance ride and in quicker. Her spouse was lucky, in that he ripped out the stiches but didn’t start bleeding to bad before they got him in.

For my father, he had a stroke in Seattle. Mom drove him in, but the triage nurse put him in the back of the line (to be fair this was during covid, and Dad was 75 at the time). He waited 6 hours to get in, which is way to late for a stroke.

Probably wouldn’t have mattered with his prior conditions, but a family friend told them that the ER’s are overwhelmed, and to call the squad if they need to go in. Dad passed six months later, and like I said it probably would have happened one way or another but telling a stroke victim to hobble out and wait is nuts.

Now in NJ, you have more hospitals and a lot more staffing ( I suspect) and a LOT less recent immigrants who use the ER for everything. Locally, it is known that the website wait times are never right. Hell, Urgent care is anywhere from 30 minutes to later in the week. Second and third generation immigrants seem to figure out you don’t go to the ER for a back sprain, but that is the norm in many 3rd world countries. We have a large number of people from Africa, who are not used to any type of medical care other than a hospital.

I understand your system is better. I hope it is. But locally more and more ER’s are closing, and that is causing longer and longer wait times. Nursing staff has been cut post CV19, and it is causing a system break down.