pmose01

Thank you to everyone that posted a reply to this thread so far. It sounds that your ERs are very similar to mine. I work in a Level 1 trauma and burn center in a poor inner city area. We see everyone from high class to the homeless and uninsured. We also get a large amount of the stupid complaints because people use us as a clinic b/c they do not have PCPs. Also, like you said, people need to be educated on what they can do at home to treat things like a cold or sore throat. They need to realize you dont have to run to the ER for everything. Also people bringing in their babies b/c they do not know basic parenting. Of course, how could they when these girls are now having children at the age of 14? They are trying to improve our wait times, but it does not seem to be working. The average wait past 10am remains at 4 hours for main side or fast track. Our hospital NEVER goes on divert, we are not permitted, no matter how many patients are in the department or in the waiting room, they want everyone to be seen. For our hospital there seems to be so many other issues that are secondary to patients waiting including dirty beds on floors, delays in lab work or radiology,no ICU beds, no ICU nurses to take care of the patients. I was researching online new things that ERs across the nation are doing to improve their wait times, it just seems like nothing is helping. I think that the key is going to be to educate the public, I just dont see that happening.

I am in the process of doing a research project for school talking about ER waiting times. I wanted to get some opionions on wait times from registration to triage, until getting into a treatment room and how long patients typically wait until sent to an inpatient bed. Also what kind of hospitals does everyone work in, how many beds does your ER have, and has your ER tried anything new recently to try and decrease your waiting times? Thanks for your input!!

In our ER, the Techs are licensed paramedics. They can do everything the nurse can except give drugs.