Quote Originally Posted by Cataholic View Post
I think 5-10 minutes is a reasonable wait time. I would have left, just as you did.

J was in the ER lately. 1.5 hours later, and I approached the nurses station, and said, 'Children's across the street has no waiting right now, I want to have him discharged'. Guess what? A doc was in 5 minutes later. Turns out, they couldn't treat him anyhow...nice bit of triage there, nurses! The doc did apologize, and I was gracious towards him...BUT, 1.5 hours, with a 6 year old? To find out they needed to send him elsewhere?



I hate to say this but if we had to wait only 1.5 hours in ER we would be dancing a jig. Our waiting times in ER out here is anywhere from 8-20 hrs, sometimes longer and that's every day 24/7. Most people who are too sick to wait that long just stay home and try to go to a clinic if they don't need x-rays or anything real serious. Priority isn't even an issue anymore. You can be having major chest pains but if the kid with the runny nose is ahead of you he's in before you. Our problem is that people use the ER for stupid issues like a cold, a bump on the leg or they're just plain bored and decide to go snack and watch tv in the ER with some feeble excuse of having a cold.