Impatient much? (long sorry)

[MergedLoki]

alrite this one bugged me. it's a quick one though.

background: i work in a hospital, i take xrays. were done here.

alright so the way it works is a patient is sent over from ER with their req. (signed dr's form saying 'xray this', patient history, reason for visit etc. all legal shit we need). everythings computer based so we CANNOT take a person's xray until their xray order has been entered into the computer system by the nurses in ER.

the program/software/equipment we use wont let us bring anything up because as far as it's concerned that patient isn't on it's worklist. therfore no entered order = no xray.

Now usually ER staff will enter the order before the patient gets sent down to us. makes everything run smoother/faster etc. Sometimes if their really busy it can take 5 - 10 minutes for them to do it once the patient is sent to xray. (the most i've seen it take is 15 and personally by the 10 min mark i call over n just remind them we need 'patient x's order to be put in'.

so i have this lady come over who just looks like one of those 'i'm pissed so im gonna make u miserable' people.

me: me
SC: the patient

me: alright ms (name) it looks like your information isn't put into our system yet it'll just be a few minutes then i'll get you in for your xrays.
SC: well how long's that going to be?
me: ...a few minutes. probably.. 5 or so. it's not long.
*so i go back to my work area as i've got other things i can do while im waiting. SC is sitting in our waiting room, maybe 5 or 6 min later the order comes through so i go to get the SC*
me: alright i'm all set up in here come on in for your xrays.
SC: FINALLY I've been waiting 6 hours for an xray!
me: no you haven't. you've been waiting maybe 8 minutes for an xray. you were just sent to me from ER, you just sat down in the waiting room.

that was about it. she got her xrays and left back to ER to see the doc.

but seriously people yes it's a hospital there is going to be wait times.

it's an ER not walmart. if you want first come first serve go to a walk in clinic the next morning isntead of coming to ER @ midnight and expecting 10 min service.

I mean if i go to ER unless im dying i fully expect to be waiting 3 or 4 hours (the avg wait time i've found). but if you're in for 5 or 6 hrs wouldn't you start to clue in 'hey maybe this isn't that serious and it can wait till tmrw?'
cuz im sorry but if you're in and there's nothign wrong w/you or it's something minor like.. A COMMON COLD that NO ONE in the hospital with can help you b/c it's a freaking cold! then you WILL wait a helluva lot longer than someone having chest pain or a stroke or bleeding from a stab wound etc. :P

oh and lil PS. the SC had nothing wrong w/her. well at least nothing the xray showed (so nothing broken or wahtever. so yea she was fine... well physically. mentally and emotionally i dunno :P)

[iradney]

Ya know, if I'm waiting in the ER for a few hours, I know it's because there's someone that has much bigger health problems than me. I once spent 5 hours waiting (for the flu), and I didn't mind. There'd been a car accident, and I would personally prefer that they take of those people before me. They do triage for a reason..
But then again, I'm (hopefully) not an EW...

[MergedLoki]

nah i mean nobody LIKES waiting.

i mean I work nightshift here, all the nightshift nurses in ER know and love me lol. but I still wait just like everybody else. (although i also try to time my very rare visits as a patient for when i know it's dead quiet).

honestly your BEST time EVER to go to the ER dept (if it can wait) is.. around 8 or 9am on a weekday.

at that point they've just done a shift change @ 7am, there's now DAY staff on (in that there will be anywhere from 2 - 5 doctors on depending on the hospital size). as oppose to the ONE thats on after midnight in most hospitals.

I try to tell people this when they complain that they've waited 6 hrs for.. like a paper cut or something.

[One-Fang]

I've never had a waiting problem at the ER. But then, when you actually have an emergency, you get seen to pretty quick. When you're trying to cheap out on out-of-hours doctor's fees and hoping for free medical treatment ... you wait.

Any hospital, anywhere, for anything, I don't think I've ever waited LESS than around 15-20 minutes (excluding said emergencies). Under 10 is phenominal. You go to another department in a hospital you sign in, you sit, and you wait. That's what happens.

At least, that's pretty much my experience. And I'm not saying it as a whinge - just ... that's life. They don't have the time and resources to hop to it and jump to every patient's need immediately.

Excluding said emergencies.

[StarsAreFixed]

Ha ooohh 8 minutes, the poor thing. The standard wait time for anything non-life or death in a major hospital here would be 8-18 hours, depending on what time you were lucky enough to arrive there at. And even then, chances are you'd get a trolley in the corridor, not an actual bed.

[Yurimaru]

Eight minutes is super-fast. I've waited 20 minutes to an hour most times... Except... when my arm had gone thru a window by accident and cut my wrist. The nurse at check-in lifted up the bandage and looked at the little blue artery in there, and says, "Okay, have a seat."

I walk over to the waiting area, and my heiney didn't even hit the plastic chair before they called me back for stitches. They probably didn't want me bumping the arm into something and losing blood in their nice clean ER.

The odd thing was the doctor decided to do Anatomy Lesson 101 and had all these interns in to look at the insides of my wrist. I am laying there, with the arm on a pile of gauze, thinking, "Close it, close it, close it! Stop looking in there and close it!"

[Andara Bledin]

Bah, so many people go in and waste the ER's time for the stupidest crap.

I've been to the ER a few times, usually when my snius infection has spread to my ear and the stabbing pain is more than I can take, once for bronchitis, and once for 2n'd degree burns. Anything less than that, and I can show up at the office and get seen there, usually faster, and a whole hell of a lot cheaper. The rate for a non-admitting ER visit for me is something like $350, because of so many people abusing the service.

^-.-^

[mariamousie1]

When I broke my wrist, I literally waited nine hours in the ER to get an X-Ray. That woman obviously has had it easy as wait times go.

[friendofjimmyk]

it's an ER not walmart. if you want first come first serve go to a walk in clinic the next morning isntead of coming to ER @ midnight and expecting 10 min service.

I mean if i go to ER unless im dying i fully expect to be waiting 3 or 4 hours

I am so grateful for the emergency room near my house. I have gone there at all different hours and NEVER had to wait. The wait room is NEVER full....I mean, I don't go there a lot by any means...but they have a thing where you never wait longer than 30 minutes to be seen.

Really helps when you're having severe pain (gallbladder attack) and you get treated right away.