2 Responses

1. Elias Friedman

   April 1st, 2008 at 7:39 am

   1

   Maybe she was editing and *contributing* to the article?

   The delays in Emergency Departments are due to the bottlenecks in the system, and the fact that sicker people have to be triaged to the front of the line. The fact is that you’re being kept track of from when you come in, however they can’t put you in a room to get your laceration stitched up (for example) until the lady who is half dead from a severe asthma attack is stabilized and can moved from the bed, or until a bed opens on one of the floors so that the elderly man with a severe infection so he can be admitted. Once you’re in a bed/room, you’ll wait for your nurse who probably has 5-9 other patients to take care of too- some who are probably sicker than you. Then you have to wait for the doctor who probably is responsible for everyone in the whole pod, then for the lab results to arrive- and their probably swamped with *everybodies* samples and blood draws, etc. It just goes on and on and it’s the same everywhere.

   As a paramedic, when I bring my patients to the emergency department I explain to them my philosophy: It is a GOOD THING if you’re cooling your heels for hours in the Emergency Department because if the staff were all rushing to take care of you it’s because they think you’re about to drop dead.

2. Dan

   April 1st, 2008 at 9:32 am

   2

   Thanks for that Elias. I somewhat agree with your philosophy and I’m sure that the medical system is running as smoothly. However when you have zero updates for 5 hours and you have a kid who has a broken bone who hasn’t eaten in that time and it’s past their bed time. Well it’s a little distressing for a parent. I had to personally badger staff just to see his X-rays!

   On the flip side how can I not mention the massive bill you pay for going to ER and generally if you pay such a large tab anywhere else you get pretty decent service. IMO the medical system is screwed.