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by ahupp 811 days ago
Yes, a large fraction of ER visits aren't emergencies. Typically they triage new patients, take the actually critical ones immediately and everyone else waits.

I'm not sure wait time is an informative metric, vs something like survival rate for different kinds of conditions.
1 comments
tomxor 811 days ago
> I'm not sure wait time is an informative metric

Seems to be a good metric for a dysfunctional triage system. How else does a type 1 diabetic with a known non-functioning insulin pump on the verge of going into coma get labelled as non critical.

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wizerdrobe 811 days ago
They’re not bleeding or have obvious trauma?

I’m not defending the hospital in TFA, per se, but my wife recently had an ER visit on a miscarriage. She was immediately admitted and tended to be a doctor for the fact that she was hemorrhaging.

During the course of our 12 hours I came and went from her room through the waiting room and to my vehicle. Saw folks waiting hours and hours. For all I know they had a faulty pump.

When it came time for dismissal, we waited hours and hours. The attending staff were handing a GSW and a head trauma on a child. While I didn’t go full-Karen I had to drop the “my wife suffered a miscarriage and is having a mental breakdown, are we going to be banned from your hostile system if we just leave?” to receive final clearance to leave.

Triage is just… complicated. You can’t plan and staff accurately for random tragedy.

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hundreddaysoff 811 days ago
I'm sorry this happened to you. I don't know what happened, but good ER docs and nurses prioritize getting people out before they get people in. (No beds left = no new patients can be seen... not that hard of a concept!)

Sometimes things happen that we can't control, but I sure do get tired of ER docs/PAs/NPs overlooking common sense stuff like this. Especially since most good ER RNs would have bugged your provider multiple times to just get y'all the hell out of there!

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SamoyedFurFluff 811 days ago
The wait to get you out is, imo, purely due to understaffing.
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FireBeyond 810 days ago
I assume because DKA usually takes 24-72 hours to develop. So unless said diabetic waited the good majority of that time with their non-functioning pump before showing up at the ER, then that might be their assumption (though if a BGL wasn't done, that's a problem, but not of the triage system).

Also, ER isn't really the place to handle DKA, those patients will cycle quickly through the ER to endocrinology or the ICU. It won't be "give me some insulin manually so I can get on with my day".

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