Longest "Visit" in ER b/4 admitted to your floor

Nurse Valium · Jan 12, 2006

This isn't really an answer to your question, as this patient never made it to the floor; we've (unfortunately) had patients come into the ED, get admission orders, go to the cath lab, get stented AND go home two days later FROM THE ER!!!

Poor them - no phone, no TV, no private bathroom, no window.

Sara, RN · Jan 12, 2006

Hi all,

This is so interesting to me. I am ED nurse in central WI. Our longest wait to get to floor in our ED is about 6.5 hours. And this is not acceptable to our administration. We actually just finished a "marketing" campaign to ensure all ED patients are triaged by RN within 33 minutes, despite our average wait time of less than 10 minutes! And yet, we have repeated dissatisfaction score due to our wait time! Maybe, our clients and business end of my hospital need to become acquainted with a loooong wait!

CHATSDALE · Jan 12, 2006

i was in er from midafternoon until almost noon the next day...er beds are built to torment the patient..no other explaination for it

froghair · Jan 12, 2006

when worked in ED 2 days was the longest i came across. some people need to wait a long time just to get it through there head that they dont present to ED at 2am with a sore toe theyve had for 1 month expecting to be seen within 5 min

Aneroo, LPN · Jan 12, 2006

So far I've seen about 30 something hours. We're in the process of building a "holding unit" for admits waiting for beds, so at least they'll be more comfy, and it will also free up space in the ED for more critical patients.

They're also building a huge cardiac center soon (won't be completed for several years though). Hopefully once that's done they will convert the current cardiac units into more medical and monitored floors- needed very badly!

ERNURSE4MS · Jan 12, 2006

hi all,
this is so interesting to me. i am ed nurse in central wi. our longest wait to get to floor in our ed is about 6.5 hours. and this is not acceptable to our administration. we actually just finished a "marketing" campaign to ensure all ed patients are triaged by rn within 33 minutes, despite our average wait time of less than 10 minutes! and yet, we have repeated dissatisfaction score due to our wait time! maybe, our clients and business end of my hospital need to become acquainted with a loooong wait!

i totally agree. we have been called to the carpet for waits of 4 hours!! can you imagine that. the pt, family and administration seem to think that we keep them down in the er for spite or to cause trouble. we don't!! most of the time i have no control over how long a patient stays in the er. it is easier for me to get them out of there than to continue to be confronted every 15 minutes with "how much longer are we going to have to wait?" and "i want to go to a room right now!!" but back to the op i think our longest wait has to be 12 hours. got wrote up for that one!

Nurse Valium · Jan 12, 2006

i think our longest wait has to be 12 hours. got wrote up for that one!

do you mean that you as an individual were written up or that a patient in the er submitted a written complaint? our er holds are due to lack of available beds (or nurses) on the floor, not because i liked the patient so much that i thought it would be fun to hang out with them for the day.

NYCRN16 · Jan 12, 2006

The longest I have seen is 5 days..for an ICU patient!! :angryfire In the winter the average wait for a patient going to a medical bed is about 6-12 hours, if they are vented, even longer.

Trauma Columnist · Jan 12, 2006

I think the OP is asking about waits for beds from the ER to the floor or ICU, right? In that case, in my big hospital, it can be up to 24 hours. As to the wait in the ER to be seen in the ER, the longest has been 8 hours.

I worked in a Chicago hospital ER (I work downstate) and there, the wait to be seen in the ER was 12-14 hours and the people were so grateful they were being seen in less than 10 hours!

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jan 12, 2006

Four days. We had 3 ft of snow on the ground and NO available beds, and the roads for the next hospital were horrible (flying was out of the question as well). The situation was to the point that PP moms went to one end of the pediatric floor (with PP nurses of course), because L and D and antepartum was packed and overflowing

PennyLane, RN · Jan 13, 2006

Prob 2 days or so. We've also had pts discharged from the ED. It depends on the time of year. It's also not unusual for psych patients to be in the ED for the weekend waiting for transfer to an inpt facility.