Why does it take you over 5 hours to be seen in a emergency room?

Question

I hate it when your in pain and you have to go to the emergency room, and you have to wait over 4 hours to be seen

Answer 1

because when you first walk in the door you're triaged and based on how severe your illness or injury is what your wait time is partially based on. the other half of it depends on what is already IN the emergency room beds when you get there. ambulance patients are taken back immediately and if someone comes in the door that is massively bleeding or having a heart attack or something that is causing them to have severe respiratory problems they are also taken back right away.

the tests that they perfom on a patient once taken back to the emergency room take anywhere from 1-4 hours to get results back-bloodwork especially and if a patient has to be admitted-the er has to wait for the room they are being put in to be cleaned and ready.

staffing issues do sometimes play a role but it's more with nurses than doctors.

the nurse in triage can usually give out tylenol or motrin for certain types of pain. the best thing to do is tell them if the pain has gotten worse since you were first seen and try to wait it out-you are not being left out there on purpose-the er just has to have a bed to put you in and it takes time to clear people out.

Answer 2

Because so many people go to the ER for non-acute conditions that could have waited until their regular doctor is available. Also, a lot of people can't afford health care, and they know that the ER can't refuse them, so they go there for things that aren't emergencies. There are also the people that go to the ER trying to get pain meds to support their addiction, and people who are just lonely and want attention.

When you go to the ER, you are triaged (sorted) according to how bad off you are. If you walk into the ER and your blood pressure is really, really low or if your leg is cut wide open and bleeding profusely, you will get seen immediately. If it is something that may still be an emergency but isn't in immediate danger of killing you, then you may have to wait a bit.

Also, you have to keep in mind that the ambulances are constantly bringing in patients (sometimes really serious ones) so if the waiting room isn't packed, and you still have been waiting 5 hours, that might be the reason.

Hope this helps! Trust me, your wait was not because the doctors and nurses didn't care or because they wanted your money, it's purely because ER's are constantly over capacity and understaffed.

Answer 3

If you are still alive after 5 hours, then you may have been sick as a buzzard or even injured pretty badly, but you were not in an "emergency" condition. Emergency is typically defined as a condition that requires immediate attention in order to avoid death, dismemberment or escalation of a condition to those points. That usually includes dangerously high fevers, profuse bleeding, loss of consciousness, symtpoms of stroke or heart attack, severe injury (repeat: SEVERE) and broken bones... those too can be forced onto a "priority list"...
Too many people use the ER for what should be taken to a doctor or an acute-minor-illness clinic. So if you can live til the Dr opens, you can at least wait in comfort at home. If not? Or its just TOO MUCH to wait that long, then you can take some small comfort that you are not as bad off as the ones going before you.....

Answer 4

It takes a long time to be seen in an emergency room because they triage (sort out) patients based on what is wrong with them. It is not first come, first served. The more serious patients are treated first. Additionally people abuse the emergency room and go for problems that are not emergencies such as they are drunk, or they have a cold. The more people who go, the longer the wait is. Also it is not uncommon for ERs to be understaffed, which also causes a longer wait.

Answer 5

I know! It's very frustrating isn't it. I live in Southern Ontario and we have somewhat of a shortage of physicians in the area. That means that few people have a family doctor, so when something is wrong, they need to travel to the clinics or to the emergency room .That certainly blocks things up. Also, your situation is assessed by a triage nurse, who then decides who needs help first. Although you may be in pain, the gentleman brought in who is suspected of having heart problems, or the child with a very high fever, would take precedent over you if you had strained muscles, a cold or something much less serious.

I completely understand how you feel, but remember that the people working in those understaffed hospitals are working very hard and aren't doing it to your personally. I give the doctors and nursers a lot of credit for working in a perpetually busy and stressfull job.

Answer 6

when answering the question 'how bad is the pain, on a scale of 1-10, 1 being not much pain, 10 being yes that bloody hurts, I give a 8 1/2 -9, that way you get seen first. But I was in big pain though.

Answer 7

It depends on 1) how busy the ER is and 2) what priority your injury or illness has been given.

Emergency rooms have slow days and busy days, just like a business. Friday and Saturday nights tend to be busy, as are many holidays (4th of July, Memorial Day, etc.). If you're there at 7 am on a Tuesday morning, you're probably not going to have to wait nearly as long as if you walk in at midnight on a Friday night.

If you're having a heart attack or you're wheeled in with a gunshot wound, then you're not going to wait. You're going to go straight in and be seen immediately. If you have a sprained ankle, then you're probably going to wait quite a while.

Answer 8

First of all there is a shortage of nurses and doctors nationwide. Second we have a class of poople on gov medical aid that use the emergency room for non emergency situations cause they don't pay out of their own pocket.
Third, they take people in order of seriousness of their disorder, not by the way they come sign in.

Answer 9

so many people go to the emergency room that there has to be a crazy wait. as im sure u have seen there are tons of accidents that occur in one day. it just so happens that there arent as many doctor available to take care of these people.

Answer 10

It's a simple problem of supply and demand. There is not enough staff to supply the demand that is placed on emergency rooms.