My Experience in the Emergency Room -- Is this Typical?
@joyceshookery (2057)
United States
March 9, 2011 11:44am CST
Recently I had to be admitted to the hospital via the emergency room since there was no time for the paperwork required for a straight admission. I’m sharing my experience with you because it was horrible. Nobody should have to deal with this kind of ER service.
I arrived at 4 pm, filled out the paperwork and took a seat in the waiting room. Soon thereafter I heard that the ER was on lockdown status. Nobody could enter the holding area (where there are gurneys where patients await hospital room beds) and nobody could leave. Apparently some criminal activity had occurred. The waiting room was pretty full. The ER stayed on lockdown status for hours. Around 8 pm I was called to the interview room where I was asked to explain why I was there. I told them I came in for a hospital admit to have a transfusion because of low hemoglobin count. I was told again about the lockdown status and that I’d have to wait in the waiting room for a hospital bed. There was an empty gurney in the interview room, but I guess it was not offered in case they needed it for another emergency. I was getting hungry and my daughter had taken the car home with her. Eventually I walked outside in the rain to the vending machines and bought cookies and a soda.
At 11 pm I called my primary care doctor to see if I could go home and the hospital could call me when a room was available. He said to hang in there in the ER.
I had quit smoking on 2/4, but at midnight on 2/18 I walked out in the rain and saw a man smoking. I asked him for a cigarette. He gave me one and loaned me an umbrella, so I sat on my walker, chatted with him and enjoyed the ciggie.
The waiting room crowd had thinned down some, but at 1:45 am I was still there even though I had been told a few hours earlier it would just be a little while longer.
I was desperate by then. I had brought a large tote with my belongings and laid on the waiting room floor using my tote as a headrest. I was there for less than five minutes. Someone came out of the interview room and said I could lie on the gurney! Sheesh! If I had known that would happen I would’ve laid on the floor much earlier.
I was finally wheeled into my hospital room at 3 am.
What’s the ER like at your local hospital?
4 people like this
8 responses
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
Thank goodness the ER where you ive doesn't put folks through that. Could be the ER here was short-saffed that night -- I know I don't want to go back there!
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
9 Mar 11
hi joyce okay let mne tell you my experience. I was sent via parmedic s to the ER of garden Grove hospital. I got there at 5 .30 pm okay I was xrayed for fractures of the right ankle wrist and knee. oh and I had a cat scan of my head too. only my nose was broken. I cried in pain no really screamedf when my moved my right knee. but it was not broken.at
8 pm I was sent back to Gold crest vias ambulance. when I tried to walk from the gurney to my bed I screamed as my right knee hurt so bad. the ambulance guys were so sweet. are; you okay I told them no I was not. then they asked if there were anyone to help me. I just told them I wou ld be alright. I co uld not even bear towalk to the bathroom. so in the moprning I had to have someone help me to walk across my room to the bathroom. so my nurse here called my doctor. he said send me to western Medical Center. got there at 8am had no breakfast. got on a bed in a cell in ER had p;ulse blood presure all that crap taken about noon,no breakfast and now no lunch. Iam a diabetic. blood tests, urine test. got tol be 3 apm. and i was shaking so told nurse I had not had anything to eat all day.. she got me a plate of food. at five pm the ER doctor finally came in. He brought a cane and forced me to try to walk. I was screaming in pain.he told me they did not take cases like mine. he would call my doctor. now 6pm, hungry. so he called my doctor who said to send me to Care House a rehab hospital. so now the er doctor tells me it will take awhile. but they will
bring me in a tray and there are the ambulance drivers who came to take me to Care House. I arrived there at 8pm. from 8 am to 8pm I had been waiting in the er of Western Medical center. I was no longer hungry and in intense pain. they had not got any of my meds yet but the Care House Doctor told them to give me some morphine for pain until the meds cou ld be got from the pharmcy. so this kind of stuff is typical in most American ERs which is really sad.I do not not if its just too many patients and too few medical workers or what but if you are in any real pain and are also diabetic and hungry you will wait and wait then wait some more.
bring me in a tray and there are the ambulance drivers who came to take me to Care House. I arrived there at 8pm. from 8 am to 8pm I had been waiting in the er of Western Medical center. I was no longer hungry and in intense pain. they had not got any of my meds yet but the Care House Doctor told them to give me some morphine for pain until the meds cou ld be got from the pharmcy. so this kind of stuff is typical in most American ERs which is really sad.I do not not if its just too many patients and too few medical workers or what but if you are in any real pain and are also diabetic and hungry you will wait and wait then wait some more.1 person likes this
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
I'm diabetic also, so not having food for that time was difficult and a pack of cookies doesn't fill one up.
You sure had a traumatic, painful experience, and endured quite a bit of medical negligence. I'm glad it's over and you're on the mend.
@GardenGerty (157551)
• United States
10 Mar 11
I have not had to be seen in an ER, but I have taken people there, both for work and for family. We have a small town, and generally they are pretty efficient. However, you would not have been sent to the ER here, you would have gone to our front desk for admission. It is the same paperwork either place, and you would have been served much better. I am sorry that that happened to you.
@GardenGerty (157551)
• United States
10 Mar 11
I have been seen in the ER, I forgot. Like I said, they were very efficient. I had to have stitches, I cut the end of my thumb on a can lid. Actually a friend of mine who was an EMT assisted, she said that it was weird, like "playing hospital" because she knew me.
@GardenGerty (157551)
• United States
10 Mar 11
Insurance sometimes makes things harder rather than easier.
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
Thanks for your response. I think the problem was that I needed the transfusion before the isurance co. could approve the admission...that's the impression I got from what I was told.
1 person likes this
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
9 Mar 11
here in ontario (canada) where i live it is pretty much the same thing because we have social medicine which means that anyone and everyone can go to emergency for anything.
however, we generally go to an urgent care centre which pretty much guarentees that you will be out within 2 hours. but yes, here in canada it would be the same scenerio perhaps not with a lock down though (do you know why they were in lockdown mode?)
1 person likes this
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
I still don't know why there was a lockdown, but heard it was gang related. Sorry to hear the situation in Canadian ER is also bad news.
Since I was there to get a hospital admission, urgent care wouldn't be an option.
Thanks for your response.
@palonghorn (5479)
• United States
9 Mar 11
Even with a lock-down, I'm surprised it took that long. The last experience I had with an er, was in Pennsylvania. I was injured on my job, wildland firefighter, so I didn't even make it to the er til around 8pm, once we were released from the fire scene we were on. I was there a total of 3 hours, most of which was in the waiting room. I was tired, hungry, and dirty......and not necessarily in that order. The worst part of the experience was the other lady in the waiting room, who had a toddler with her. He was allowed to run around and yell, while she repeatedly told him to sit down. He finally walked over in front of me and I told him....get in that chair, sit down, and be quiet! He did, and it was quiet until I was called back to the examining room. I would have been voicing my opinion over the situation you had to go through. That was totally ridiculous. Most times when there is a lock-down in a hospital now it is due to the baby low-jack system, the alarm system for newborns. But I have never heard of it lasting more than a few minutes to an hour.
1 person likes this
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
I'm thinking that the hospital is very short-staffed. The lockdown lasted way too long, especially with the police and hospital security being nearby.
During my wait I put up with a woman who kept up a steady stream of talk. Her son-in-law and daughter got the bulk of her tirade though everybody could hear it. Her son-in-law told me she was bipolar and was fine when she took her medication. The security guard kept telling her to sit in the chair and be qu iet...which didn't do much good. The ER is such a zoo sometimes.
@zoey7879 (3092)
• United States
9 Mar 11
I've visited several hospitals where the ER times are usually 30-45 minutes, or less, to be taken to a room. I've been to the ER a couple of times though and oh lord... One of them was 8 hours long, but it turned out to be an infection that was just spreading quickly. It wouldn't have killed me or caused me great harm by waiting so long.
But I can remember one year, on Christmas, I fell down some stairs. My foot got stuck in between two stairs and there was a loud snapping noise. I arrived at the ER around 9am, and was taken into a room soon after. By then, my ankle was already swelling quickly and in immense pain. I wasn't offered assistance walking, I wasn't offered a wheelchair. Yup, had to walk on it through the building to my room.
Then I sat until about 3pm... waiting. The nurse finally took me to get an X-ray. At 4pm, I was still sitting in the waiting room and no one had bothered to stabilize my ankle in anyway. They simply told me that it wasn't fractured. By 5pm, I had missed all of the family festivities and my aunt yelled at them to give her the bandage wrap and she'd just do it her damn self. They said that I sprained it, but a few months later a sports doctor (without benefit of an MRI tho) said she believed I had damaged a ligament. For about the next 4 years, my ankle would snap/pop and give out on me without warning.
Nothing as potentially dangerous as what you were talking about though. That better have been some SERIOUS criminal activity going on for them to put people at risk like that. They least they could have done was provided some food for people.
1 person likes this
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
Whe I was in an ER in L.A. the wait was shorter. Thanks for your response. The hospital ER here has a lousy reputation but there are no other ERs available to us.
Yes, people could die while waiting for care here.
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
10 Mar 11
I've never heard of an ER having a "lock-down," whatever they mean by that. What do they do it for?
In any case, long waits are typical here, as well, unless you're bleeding or having a seizure, I guess. Even then, sometimes! And our medicine isn't totally Socialistic, yet; this waiting business has gone on for decades. There must be some reason for it, but for us, it isn't all politics, I think. We do have a medical staff shortage, which might explain it, & it's very possible politics is to blame for that, in-so-far as things such as malpractice suits being out of control (a lot of doctors are getting tired of it & getting out of the field).
I can't say with certainty what the deal is with hours upon hours of waiting in an ER!
Maggiepie
“Hope is a great breakfast, but a poor supper.” ~ Sir Frances Bacon
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
What with the police ahd hospital security I couldn't understand the lockdown lasting for hours either. Thanks for your response.
1 person likes this
@soapies1973 (931)
• United States
9 Mar 11
That is a horrible experience. Sorry you had to go through that. I have no patience I can't believe you waited that long. Hope your feeling better. Take care.
@joyceshookery (2057)
• United States
10 Mar 11
I was definitely ready and willing to leave. My doctor recommended that I stay since I needed to be admitted. I don't have much patience either and thanks for your response.
