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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TANSTAAFL" data-source="post: 4234064" data-attributes="member: 27098">Here's a nightmare with waiting. My wife was having severe abdominal pain, so rather than calling an ambulance I drove her to the ER myself. Waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance when I can get her to the ER myself should make sense, right? Not in this fracked up monster big health and government have cooked up.Got her to the ER and ended up in the waiting room with all the snifflersminor aches and pains and small cuts and they took 30 minutes to get her to triage and take her vitals, they told us that there are no spaces in the ER since they only put People in ambulances in the ER. They said to wait, all this time my wife is having more and more pain. After 20 minutes they called her in, put her on a cart then took her for a Cat Scan, which took another 20 minutes, then called me to go into the ER.I was surprised to find her sitting in a chair outside an office, a nurse came and started an IV and gave her a shot of demerol, and sent her with the IV and no wheelchair back to the waiting room to wait for the Doctor. Every 1/2 hour I waited and calmly and politely asked when the Doctor would see her and when would she get a cart to lay down on in the ER, they said any minute after 1 1/2 I asked if we would be seen at all, the demerol was wearing off and she was starting to feel it. I asked them at that time if I could take her to another ER or if I could call an ambulance to another ER and they told me yes, but you will be signing out AMA (you do that and your insurance will not pay and you will be on the hook for the whole bill at non insurance costs.)After 4 hours in the waiting room, 6 hours after getting there they finally got her in, on a cart and saw a nurse. Never saw the Doctor, but we were told the diagnosis was small bowel obstruction.She was admitted, was seen regularly by Doctors after that. Fortunately for her no surgery was needed.Why did we go to this ER? The other ER we went to prior was even worse. My wife had sepsis (we know the symptoms) and passed out while waiting to be triaged, I couldn't wake her. They told me that they would be with her when they could. I walked into the triage and told them she passed out, they told me she'd have to wait, I told them she needs to be seen by a doctor immediately or she will end up dead,  I told them she will die and I will sue them, we know she is sick most likely sepsis. They asked me to step out again, I told them not until you see her (I was in no condition to carry her to a car and drive her 20 minutes to another hospital.) They came out to the chair, took her BP, and then stuff began to happen. Within 10 minutes a Doctor saw her, and had IV's started and within an hour or so they started IV antibiotics. 14 hours later she was sent to the ICU.So, please do not tell me that waiting is no big deal. I worked in health care as an ER Secretary and ER Coordinator (a public relations type position.) If either of two scenarios played out in the ER I worked at, people would have been fired.Large modern health facilities have become a joke. Bureaocracy over speed, ambulances first over who needs Healthcare first, the ambulance visits are where the money's at. My advice, want to be seen fast, call and wait for an ambulance. Stay with your loved one, don't leave them in the ER alone.</blockquote>

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