going to the ER

[Lizard Queen]

Why does going to the er always seem to involve nothing but having 6 hours of my life wasted and I'm never going to get it back?

[Sum Dum Gai]

You're not showing up right.  Get there in the back of an ambulance strapped to a backboard, wearing a neck brace, and have the first responders tell the ER doc you may have stopped breathing prior to their arrival, aren't fully lucid, but your vitals were stable during the ride.  They jogged me through the ER and straight to imaging.  No wait at all.

Vomiting blood gets you through pretty quick too.  Although it wasn't much blood, so I still had to wait for a few minutes while Loop filled out the insurance papers.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Or a fever of 104. Although, my ER either has no patients or no patience. Hahaha. 
But really, it's either feast or famine there. 

[mmhmm]

I just hope it wasn't anything too serious that got you there, milee!  Especially on weekends, ERs tend to be nightmares.  It's like a freaking assault!

[Lizard Queen]

Oct 26, 2013 23:00:19 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

I just hope it wasn't anything too serious that got you there, milee!  Especially on weekends, ERs tend to be nightmares.  It's like a freaking assault!

Thanks. I was concerned about my mom. During the past several hours she has improved, but not as a result of anything done by the ER. all they've done is tests, which showed nothing.

[mmhmm]

Oh, dear, milee.  What were your mother's symptoms, hon?

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

I went through that with DH - when he FINALLY got seen he then laid on a bed in the ER examining area for 8 freaking hours while they did tests, waited for lab results, monitored him, etc etc. And it was crazy busy - the ER's here are always like that - worse on weekends but even on weekdays it's insane.

It was the next morning when they finally decided to admit him - and he ended up having his bed in a hallway on one of the wards for a day and a half until a room was available.

The second time he had to go to ER it was via ambulance - and he got taken straight to an examining room on a gurney - then admitted within an hour.

[Deleted]

 Thanks to the symbiotic wedding of ambulance services and hospitals, paying the extra charge for ambulance service apparently buys you a position at the front of the line in the ER.
 If you get to the ER under your own power, however, you can languish for hours in the waiting room before you are examined or even processed.
 Funny how that works, isn't it?

[cronewitch]

Sometimes it isn't clear what the problem is so they need test and waiting.

In 1989 ISO was crushed at work and taken to the trauma center they took him right in but 5 hours later they still had to do a CAT scan to see if he had brain damage. In the morning he was admitted but still covered in blood and bruises, they had set his broken hand but not much else and said he could go home. He said he wasn't going home until he could walk. He ended up staying a few days because he needed a catheter but in no way should have been sent home until he was set up with a hospital bed and we had time to build a wheel chair ramp.

While waiting all night in the waiting room I saw lots of people who hadn't been seen yet after several hours of waiting. They take heart attacks, drug overdoses, accidents and knife and bullet wounds before sick people who decide at midnight the cold they had for two days needs a doctor.

[Shooby]

I always prepare myself for a 6 hr wait if I am going to the ER.

[Deleted]

Oct 27, 2013 0:25:44 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 Thanks to the symbiotic wedding of ambulance services and hospitals, paying the extra charge for ambulance service apparently buys you a position at the front of the line in the ER.
 If you get to the ER under your own power, however, you can languish for hours in the waiting room before you are examined or even processed.
 Funny how that works, isn't it?

Wed? Not here.  It has a little more to do with the fact that the ambulance calls you in en-route so your ER priority is determined medically a little ahead of the arrival.

The one time I drove myself in, but couldn't find parking close to the hospital, so had to walk up a rather steep hill, I accidentally got myself to the front of the line.  I was going in for an athsma attack and couldn't breathe well, so hiking a hill put me in rather a state. They thought I was having a heart attack because my chest was hurting and burning as well as extremely short of breath.  They shot me into a room and slapped me onto monitors before I realized why they were moving so quickly.

[mmhmm]

Oct 27, 2013 1:10:31 GMT -5 @rockit said:

Oct 27, 2013 0:25:44 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 Thanks to the symbiotic wedding of ambulance services and hospitals, paying the extra charge for ambulance service apparently buys you a position at the front of the line in the ER.
 If you get to the ER under your own power, however, you can languish for hours in the waiting room before you are examined or even processed.
 Funny how that works, isn't it?

Wed? Not here.  It has a little more to do with the fact that the ambulance calls you in en-route so your ER priority is determined medically a little ahead of the arrival.

The one time I drove myself in, but couldn't find parking close to the hospital, so had to walk up a rather steep hill, I accidentally got myself to the front of the line.  I was going in for an athsma attack and couldn't breathe well, so hiking a hill put me in rather a state. They thought I was having a heart attack because my chest was hurting and burning as well as extremely short of breath.  They shot me into a room and slapped me onto monitors before I realized why they were moving so quickly.

That's not that unusual, Rock It.  I've seen people come in the door of the ER clutching their chest (Levine's sign) and short of breath.  They are always roomed and assessed immediately. If it does happen to be a heart attack, we've got a pretty short window of opportunity and don't want that to go to waste.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I hate the ER. DH went there after confessing that he'd fallen 2 days before and had had a splitting headache the last 2 days and was feeling sick. He'd had a previous subdural hematoma so it couldn't be ignored. They got him into an examining room and shot him up with Fentanyl and an anti-nausea med, and then we waited. And waited. They did do an X-ray and saw bleeding, and then had to find a nearby hospital with a neurosurgeon on the premises (it was Saturday) and within our network. It took hours and I had a triathlon the next AM- my first, and I had to be up at 5:30 AM and I was nervous about it. Finally I asked DH if it was OK if I went back home. He agreed. I had a quick dinner, loaded the bike on the car by myself, and called Hospital #1 just before I settled into bed. They were just transferring him to Hospital #2. So I drove over there but of course it took an hour for the ambulance to get there. It really made me wish I'd just plopped him in the car and taken him myself. (Yes, I know that would have meant waiting for hours and Hospital #2.)

I made it through the triathlon the next AM and went straight to the hospital with the race numbers still painted on my arms and legs. He didn't even remember my leaving the night before, or being admitted to the second hospital.

Knock wood we've managed to avoid the ER ever since. We have some good Doc-In-a-Boxes and he's gotten through 2 cases of bronchitis and one of pneumonia without going near the hospital.

[whoami]

I've been to ER 3 times in my life.  Pneumonia, my heart doing some wonky beats and food poisoning.  I have no idea what the waiting room even looks like because I've always been taken straight back to a room.  Maybe its the difference between public and private hospitals or maybe because I did have legit emergencies (especially the pneumonia and heart thing).  

Not saying this is the OPs case, but too many people use the ER as their primary doc.  The languishing occurs because while they take emergencies before the rest, everyone has to be evaluated and it all takes time.  

[Lizard Queen]

Oct 26, 2013 23:11:27 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

Oct 26, 2013 23:00:19 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

I just hope it wasn't anything too serious that got you there, milee!  Especially on weekends, ERs tend to be nightmares.  It's like a freaking assault!

Thanks. I was concerned about my mom. During the past several hours she has improved, but not as a result of anything done by the ER. all they've done is tests, which showed nothing.

The ER wasn't even that busy. She had called me and told me she fell while trying to get her bp medicine bottle open. Then, she'd start saying something and just stop. So I drove over there and she told me that she hadn't eaten anything yet. She was still zoning out. I was trying to get her to eat, and she started puking up frothy saliva stuff, so I called an ambulance.

[Deleted]

I don't know if it's just because we're in a small town and have a separate urgent care, but our ER is generally just used for emergencies and we've always got taken right back and seen within 10-15 minutes.

Urgent care can be a PIA though. 

[Otto the Orange]

no worries, I am sure Obama care will fix this in the future

[sesfw]

We've been to ER 4 times and the longest wait was about 10 minutes when I had a very painful kidney stone.  Our local hospital is excellent from all I have heard. 

When DH had his heart attack I took him in about 5:30 Monday morning and we were the only ones there.  He was taken immediately.  My kidney stone the waiting room had several people waiting and I had to wait about 10 minutes.  My intestinal blockage was immediate care also.  But a Dr had called it in while I was on my way there and they were waiting for me.  Then DH and his bleeding the day after colonoscopy.  He went by ambulance and had immediate care.

ER isn't a place I want to go .... but it's nice to have when needed.

[formerroomate99]

There is a top 100 hospital 7 miles from my house, and it appears like nobody in town knows the place has an ER.  I've been there 3 times and got in and out faster than I do at Walgreens.  My area has a ton of those urgent care centers, so I guess that takes some pressure off the ER's. 

[Peace Of Mind]

<<takes notes>>

1.  Clutch chest and pretend to have trouble breathing.
2.  If all else fails stab self and smear blood every where.  Drug OD optional.

Got it!   How much will that shorten the wait?  About 15 minutes?   

Milizard - I hope your mom is going to be just fine. 

[Spellbound454]

Our ER is in a bit of a crisis at the moment.

Its free at the point of delivery and there is a triage system where urgent cases get dealt with first
but far too many people go when they should be seeing their GP.....and they are likely to have a six hour wait.

Last time I went, my ex phoned to say he fallen down some concrete steps. I picked him up and we waited hours for x-rays, plaster, admission and meds.
He'd broken his fingers, wrists, arm and elbow. I took him to our house so we could look after him for a few days whilst we waited for surgery.
It was icey outside, the place was like a war zone. There were so many people presenting with broken bones......that there weren't enough beds.

The system is supposed to go:- pharmacist, GP, hospital. There are advice lines and walk in centres but because the advice lines are staffed by non medical people and the GPs run out of appointments, people take themselves to hospital where they know they will be seen...thus causing a bottle neck.

[Deleted]

Oct 27, 2013 15:41:20 GMT -5 Otto the Orange said:

no worries, I am sure Obama care will fix this in the future

While I know Obamacare is far for perfect, one of the problems with our current system is the number of people whose medical plan is "wait till you can't stand it anymore, then go to the ER".  If they could get preventative care, and access to walk-in clinics (which tend to go up in the more prosperous areas) I think that would take a load off the ERs.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Timing is everything in going to the ER.

A couple years ago, we tried going to the ER when I had a massive gall bladder attack. It was a Saturday evening and the place was packed to the gills. Me being doubled over in pain wasn't considered a priority. The pain finally went away before I was even triaged! The next Sunday morning, I had another attack and I was able to get right in. 2 hours later, I was having surgery.

When I had my hip infection, I started having symptoms Saturday evening and realized that there was no way I was going to be seen in any sort of expedient manner on a Saturday night. I dosed up and went to bed, and the next morning I took myself to the ER. I was the only person in there and got right in. As I was talking to the intake nurse, she told me that the previous night was an utter zoo, so waiting it out in the comfort of my own bed was probably a smart move.

[Angel!]

I have been to the ER 7 times that I can recall between DS & myself.  Most of the times I didn't even have a chance to sit down before being taken back.  I think my longest wait was probably still under 5 minutes to get out of the waiting room.  But, I will say all our visits have been for something potentially life threatening and we definitely got moved to the front of the line.  When DS was 2 and having an asthma attack I think there were about 30 people in the waiting room (I remember walking in and thinking "oh shit" thinking we would be waiting a while) and we were rushed to the back immediately. 

We had:
- 4 allergic reactions (1 involved an ambulance ride) of the potentially anaphylactic variety
- 2 asthma attacks (1 involved an ambulance ride)
- 1 coughing/spitting up blood - shortly after DS's tonsillectomy

I will say in every case we got taken back immediately, got some initial treatment quickly, and then sat and waited for hours and hours.  So it isn't like our visits were short, they still probably averaged 4-6 hours, but we just got out of the waiting room quick.

[teen persuasion]

Oct 28, 2013 7:44:32 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Oct 27, 2013 15:41:20 GMT -5 Otto the Orange said:

no worries, I am sure Obama care will fix this in the future

While I know Obamacare is far for perfect, one of the problems with our current system is the number of people whose medical plan is "wait till you can't stand it anymore, then go to the ER".  If they could get preventative care, and access to walk-in clinics (which tend to go up in the more prosperous areas) I think that would take a load off the ERs.

We don't have any urgent care places near us, and it drives me crazy.  Most of our visits to the ER have been for stitches.  We would love to go elsewhere for stitches, but the peds and GPs around here won't do stitches, so there is nowhere else to go.

It would also be helpful if the ER would not overtreat you.  DH spent 3 days in 2 different hospitals since the cardiologist insisted that he must have had a heart attack.  Even after a clean angiogram (different cardiologist), the first one is still insisting on it.   His latest trip to the ER, last week, was due to a tablesaw injury to his left index finger.  Bandages, x-rays, splints, PT whirlpool treatments, antibiotics, referral to an orthopedic doctor.  When the Ortho saw the injury, he just scoffed and told DH he would be fine - all that was needed was a band-aid and the antibiotics, just in case.

And we wonder why medical care is so expensive!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

It would also be helpful if the ER would not overtreat you.

Only problem is that it's a very fine line that ER docs must walk. In my case, I got a CT scan because my hip was aching and the scan found the mother of all abscesses in my hip. As they had already found that I had a UTI, I could have easily been dumped off with a prescription for antibiotics and PT for my joint. That abscess had them doing bloodwork to discover that I also had septecemia and likely an infected prosthesis.

And the flip side, there was a recent report where a mother took a child to the ER because he hit his head. ER doctor deemed everything ok and released the kids without subsequent tests. But the kid had a subdural hematoma, went into a coma and died.

[muttleynfelix]

I've only been to the ER once and that was for DS's dislocated elbow at age 2.  We were in and out in less than hour.  I went to Urgent Care when I was pooping blood every 20 minutes.  I got there at 11am. I didn't get called back to see the doctor (nurse practitioner) until almost 4pm. He actually went and looked at my stool sample and realized immediately something was wrong.  But he had to call the hospital to talk to the doctor there, run some other tests and it was 7pm before I was sent over to the hospital.  I told the doctor there I should have just gone to the ER. He told me, I would probably still be waiting in the ER, but who knows. If I had gone to the ER, at least I would have only had to have one IV put in.    At urgent care, they heplocked me to send me to the hospital and at the hospital they said sorry we can't use that because it wasn't done in our building.

[teen persuasion]

Yeah, Mich, I do understand that.  That is why DH went to the ER both times, just in case.  Now we are much more tempted to swing to the opposite extreme and just not bother.  It is really a hard call to make.

[Phoenix84]

I'll never forget when I was a kid and spilled boiling hot water all over my stomach.  My parents took me to the ER and we waited for HOURS.  I was in excruciating pain for long. 

Thanksfully, I don't have to go very often (knock on wood).

[Phoenix84]

Oct 27, 2013 0:25:44 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 Thanks to the symbiotic wedding of ambulance services and hospitals, paying the extra charge for ambulance service apparently buys you a position at the front of the line in the ER.
 If you get to the ER under your own power, however, you can languish for hours in the waiting room before you are examined or even processed.
 Funny how that works, isn't it?

Yes, I've noticed that trend as well from reading this thread.  You'd think they'd want people to use the ambulence as a last resort, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

One of my concerns is I could end up like my mom.  She had a detached retina, and needed to undergo emergency eye surgery to save her vision.  I may have the same problem someday, and if I go to the ER, I can't afford to wait for 6-8 hours to be tested.

I wonder how common it is for people to die in the ER waiting room, or otherwise experience disability that could have been prevented?