OT Physicians. Why does ER take so damned long?

Poor people, and illegals using it as primary care.

I’m at Grandview Hospital in Bham now with my wife. Brought in once her temp spiked to 103.6. Took them less than 10 minutes to have her triaged, blood drawn minutes later, and in a room with IV meds directly after. Got here at about 7 tonight and the doctor just came back and said she can go home on oral antibiotics.

They backed up man.
Be thankful that Covid ended entire families from congregating in the lobby, raiding the vending machines, sucking in the A/C because Auntie was having heart palpitations and she needed all the kids, nephews and grandchildren by her side the entire time.

Well, hell.
My child has an actual ER visit. Banged her head accidentally.

Also, pretty much any pt that arrives in an ER with any legit complaint will have a battery of tests…blood work, imaging.
These tests take time to be ordered, time to be completed, time to be interrupted.
Magnify that by the number of people in the ER. There’s your wait time.

Earth, did she have a viral or bacterial infection? I ask because one of my adult sons ran a high fever, went to a doc in the box, and left with an antibiotic prescription and a diagnosis of pharyngitis. The high temp thing seems to have recently happened to several people I know. Hope she does well.

Every ED at 11:30PM:

“What is your complaint?”

“My back hurts.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“About two months.”

quote:

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OT Physicians. Why does ER take so damned long?

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I beat the system on this one time and went straight to the front of the line.

I got home to BR airport around 11:30 pm one weeknight (a Thursday to be exact) a few years ago. I was having some allergy/sinus issues that made my ears not "pop" when we landed, and I could barely hear. So on the way to getting my bags, I stopped and pinched my nose and breathed out and Voila! My ears popped and I was good to go.

Fast-forward about 10 minutes when I'm in my car cruising down the fine area that is Airline Highway in NBR around midnight, on my way home to near Prairieville. I felt a little trickle come from my nose...I figured it was snot, but to my surprise, it was blood. Just a little at first, then it started gushing. And gushing. And gushing more. Thankfully I had a big bath towel in my car and that helped for a while.

But it wouldn't stop. I'm driving down the highway with a bath towel covering my face and I can't get it to stop bleeding. Pretty soon, the towel was saturated with blood and it was getting all over me, my seat, and my car in general.

So when I got to the I-12 exit on Airline, I decided to head to the ER at OLOL.

I pulled into the parking lot there and I'm still gushing blood. I walked into the ER and went right to the front desk, blood dripping everywhere. The girl working the desk asked if I had been shot I told her what was going on and she took me straight back to the triage room and someone immediately came and saw me.

I had to go take a leak, so they let me go to the pisser, still gushing blood from my nose. The bathroom looked like a crime scene by the time I was done

They finally got me to a bed and after about 5 more minutes of serious bleeding, they finally got it to stop. Doc said I had a busted blood vessel and he had to cauterize it, which felt less than stellar.

They assured me that I didn't lose very much blood. I think whoever had to clean up the trail of blood from the reception desk to the triage room to the pisser, and then to the actual room I ended up in would beg to differ...

TLDR: If you walk in the ER bleeding like a gutted pig, your wait time will decrease exponentially.

Hope she is well.

This place is sluggish.