When I go to the Emergency Room, why is the wait so long?

Dear Viki,

When I go to the Emergency Room, why is the wait so long?

Basically there are only so many beds in a hospital and an emergency room. If there is overcrowding in the hospital, the emergency room will get overcrowded with people waiting to be admitted to the hospital. I know someone that spent three days in the emergency room because there were no beds available in the rest of the hospital. She got her meals, her physical therapy, her medical tests, her x-rays, etc done while she lay in the hallway of the ER. Eventually she got better and was discharged home. She never made it to a regular hospital room.

So how long you will wait to be seen in the emergency department will depend on many factors. Here are just a few:

• How many people got there before you
• How sick you are
• How sick the other people are
• How crowded the whole hospital is
• How many ambulances are arriving outside
• How many other ER’s are available in your area
• People go to the ER when they have a cold or aren’t really sick and take up the doctor’s time
• People go to the ER because they don’t have insurance and the ER has to treat you even if you can’t pay
• People go to the ER because they didn’t want to take time off from work to go to their doctor’s office
• People go to the ER because they kept waiting and hoping they would get better and by the weekend, they still aren’t better

If the other patients already there and those in the arriving ambulances have a more life threatening condition, your wait will be really long. Sorry. Basically the nurses will do something called triage. They have to evaluate who needs help right away and who can wait. I live in an area where many of our emergency rooms have closed because there wasn’t enough money in Los Angeles to keep them open. It puts tremendous pressure on the hospitals that still take care of emergency patients and increases our wait time.

What can we do?

1. Don’t take it out your anger and frustration on the nurses and doctors in the emergency department. They know you had to wait and they wish it was different too. When they go to the ER themselves, they have to wait. They understand and are doing the best they can.

2. If you aren’t really, really sick, go to your doctor’s office. Or go to the urgent care.

3. If you are sick on a Friday morning, go to your doctor’s office. Don’t wait until 6 PM and then go to the ER.

4. Go prepared. Bring all of the medicines and other pills that you have been taking with you in a bag. You shouldn’t be surprised to have to wait.  Bring something to read or do with you.

5. Ask your state to provide more resources for the local hospitals.

Have a kind and respectful day.

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