They left my love one in the E.R. for....

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8 hours waiting for a bed. (a girlfriend's friend told me she didn't like the hospital for that reason)

Now yesterday my g.f. told me..."Scott (her boyfriend's dad) was in the E.R. for 24 hours" (he ended up being admitted)

Do you get people saying this to you? What's your response to them?

Obviously you don't understand the difference between whining and stating an opinion. Like I said in my post, I am just stating my opinion on what an ED has to go through and people should understand that and just get past it. After all most people who go to an ED arent really have an emergency so a wait is acceptable. But once again that is my opinion on the subject

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Originally posted by memphispanda

Well...the hospital I work at definitaly has a problem with the ER wait time. But it isn't the wait to be seen necessarily, it's the time waiting for a room on one of the floors after you have been seen in the ER. Major supply and demand problem. People are often in the ER for 2 days waiting for a bed, and 4 days isn't unheard of. I think that's something to gripe about!

Yes, it is terrible!! Was there 2 days waiting on a bed with a dx of sepsis.

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Specializes in Everything except surgery.

I agree with the other posts about this being common, and have been in ERs where the stay is even longer! One of the biggest problem is NO beds, or NO staff to take care of the pt. once they get admitted. And as others have said, it's only going to get worse! Just wait until us Baby Boomers retired, then see how long the wait is:).

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Yep, it's normal....just like Brown et al said.

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I think it is akin to when patients start complaining about the food and practically everything else,

My motto is:

"When they're well enough to start complaining, send them HOME !"

When ER holds are complaining cause they don't have a room with a television and remote control, their own phone, and their private bath,..................

HO HO ! Send them home ! ! ! ! ! !

Treat them as outpatients !!

If you are able to notice and whine, you have no business

in the ER.

Go home !!!!

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma.

I can relate to all the frustrations the other ER nurses are voicing here....and I'm sure you all have noticed that in general the ones complaining the most are the least acute; ones that could have gone to their own MD office rather than the ER. The analogy that I give my pts is this- Say you have this health concern (not an emergency), if you wanted to see any other docotr other than an ER physician, it would generally take you a day or two to even get an appt. Then it would also take a few more days to get lab results back. If any other diagnostics were needed, i.e. CT, you would have to make an outpatient appt at another facility, again probably taking a few days to get an appt, and then waiting a few more days for the results of THOSE tests. We're talking at least a week to get all the results that we are able to do in a few hours. So looking at it this way, is a few hours really anything to complain about?

Okay, my next pet peeve, I don't understand why pts complain so much about being held in the ER waiting for a bed upstairs (other than the discomfort of ER stretchers!) You get admitted into the hospital essentially for nursing care, diagnostics, and closer MD observation/management. All of these things are done in the ER if we have to hold a pt. Once a pt is admitted, the ER nurse carries out the admitting doctor's orders just as they would be done on the floor. Any further diagnostics ordered by the admitting physician are arranged by the ER nurse. This goes for meds, therapies, etc. The pt actually is getting more individual nursing care than they would on the floor simply because floor nurses have more pts. Heck, even our visiting hours are around the clock. The majority of our ER rooms are private, so that can't be the problem. Point being, other than the uncomfortable stretcher, I really don't see what there is to complain about being held in the ER (from the pt's point of view anyway, there's plenty to complain about from the nursing side, I know!) unless it really boils down to having that TV and phone in the room- which most of our rooms have anyway! Someone enlighten me.......

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People are often in the ER for 2 days waiting for a bed, and 4 days isn't unheard of. I think that's something to gripe about! [/b]

I worked in the ED, and this did happen from time to time, and there was nothing that I, personally, could do about it.

This is a problem that admin. should address, but inevitably, it's the nurses that take the blame. I don't have a free bed hidden in my pockets, so "griping" to me isn't going to help much.

Please...don't encourage people to complain even more than they already do. It's bad enough that it's a nurse's fault if the room is too hot/cold, pt got tea instead of coffee, the TV doesn't get the channel the pt wants, etc., etc., etc.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Well...it's a problem IMO when the patients are waiting for a bed for 24+ hours and they have no private toilet, no shower, and possibly are on a stretcher in the hall, not in a private ER room. Most of the time--even in the "slow" morning times, there is at least one hall dweller in the ER. They are working to alleviate this problem though. In March they are opening 2 new units...a 23 hour obs unit and a "patient flow" unit for the ER patients waiting for a bed on the floor.

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But taking it out on the nurse is not going to alleviate the problem.

We did the best we could to make people comf. when they had to stay in the ED, but if were no beds, there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I wasn't meaning to insinuate that it is ok to take it out on the nurse. I think it's fine for them to be upset though. I certainly would be. And unfortunately for the nurse, she (or he) is the one the patient sees most often and will probably be the one who has to deal with the upset patient regardless of the cause of the wait. When you feel like total crap, the last place you want to be is in the middle of a well-lit, noisy hall.

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Yes, I can understand that no one likes to wait. However, I can offer some points of view from a "floor nurse" perspective. I have no problem taking an ER admission. It is a different story around change of shift time, especially with 1400 being the worst time. At 1400 discharges frequently happen often with complications increasing the amount time a nurse is tied up with the discharge. Not to mention, that we also take Direct admits from the clinic and for some reason they start to roll in around this time as well.

Also, we have a structural problem with our floor layout. Often at 1400 or at any shift change, we take this time to balance out the staffing on the floor. So every nurse isn't split down 3 hallways.

Now also, we can cap our floor. I know the ER just hates this but at least the patient has a nurse. The acuity on my floor has exploded over the last 4 years and the staffing ratios just aren't the same as they were 4 years ago, and of course the shortage of nurses is playing a factor.

Yes, we do hold off patients to clean rooms, especially if the person is confused, or has special needs that would need a larger room. Our wait time is dependent on housekeeping.

Lastly, keep in mind that we too have a great turnover rate. I believe that we keep a daily average turnover of 25 out of 40 beds. The last couple of shifts I have worked 8's and 12's. I have had 7-12 patients throughout the day, with only five at one time.

Yes, there are nurses out there that do "defer" to the next shift so that they don't have to deal with an admission. But I think that you will find that it really isn't laziness that is the clog in the transfer process but many other things that compound the problem.

Just my opinion and my two cents.

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Specializes in Everything except surgery.
Originally posted by passing thru

I think it is akin to when patients start complaining about the food and practically everything else,

My motto is:

"When they're well enough to start complaining, send them HOME !"

When ER holds are complaining cause they don't have a room with a television and remote control, their own phone, and their private bath,..................

HO HO ! Send them home ! ! ! ! ! !

Treat them as outpatients !!

If you are able to notice and whine, you have no business

in the ER.

Go home !!!!

My thoughts exactly passing thru! When I would leave the ER and go home, and then come back only to find the same pts there...starts my shift off on a bad note!

Yes I feel for the pts lanquishing on those stretchers, but has been said, WE don't want them there either! The sooner we get them admitted, the sooner we can get the ones, who are waiting for those stretchers or rooms and {B] GET THEM OUT OF THE ER!

I have been in more than a few ERs with no where to put people! Their in the halls, on stretchers, in W/C....heck some of them have took their behinds outside to use the phone, or to have a cigarette!!!!! And how would you like to have your pts, sitting there grabbing you everytime you're trying to move as fast as you can, asking the same questions over, and over again!

NO we haven't forgot about you! If I had a magic wand, I would have made you better, and sent you home! But I don't, so you I can't materialize a bed, and being asked the same question, or getting an attitude will NOT speed up the process!

I have worked on both ends. In the ER, on the floors, and in the units! And there are many reasons why pts are left in the ER for long periods! And most of them have been covered here already. So don't take it personal, but everyone I have ever worked with, except for the select few who could care less, wants the best for those who come for help. We all just do the best we can, with what we have, and that is all we can do:D

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