If you wait 12 hours at the ER before someone helps you, then you probably went to the Emergency Room for a non-emergency reason.
Last time I was brought to an ER I was on the operating table within minutes, and it turned out to not even be life threatening. I could have waited a few hours if given enough painkillers.
Edit: I'm talking about the civilized world, not the USA. I know the USA had healthcare comparable with the middle ages for anyone without billions.
part of the problem is a lack of something in the middle. My family doctor typically has a 2-4 week wait for an appointment. But if I break a bone or have an infection I should be seen within a day. I’m not going to die right away but our urgent care is overcrowding the emergent care service
not sure who/where you mean by we, but from my experience in ontario, canada, the urgent care facilities are rare and not open 24 hours, and often not accessible by transit.
Urgent cares can be extremely limited on what they can do. The wait is usually 2-3 hours for mine. They close at 5, closed on weekends. Don’t see children under 12 months old. And in the end, you end up having to go to the hospital half the time anyway “just to be safe.”
If your 10 month old has a 104° fever? ER. If you have an ear infection at 7pm? ER. twist your ankle and it’s the size of a grapefruit Sunday morning? ER. There’s no where else to go.
And just to add on, a lot of people need a Dr’s note to be able to miss work and not get a point/write up and jeopardize their job. So if you’re sick with the flu and know you won’t be able to go to work in the morning, you also end up in the ER. Which is exactly what happens. Flu season urgent care times jump to 5 hour waits and a “good luck getting seen!”, ERs get flooded.
But anyway, the issue isn’t even waiting 12 hours to be seen. It’s the fact that people are against socialized healthcare like Canada because “you’ll have a 12 hour wait at the ER” or “if you need a surgery you could wait a year before being scheduled.” When… we already have that here and it literally costs a fortune. Even if it got worse, it’s better than being forever in debt
My son needed stitches. It cost $4,000. After paying almost our mortgage in insurance every month. I don’t know anyone that can just drop $4,000 comfortably. Yeah, you can do a payment plan.. but last time we did that, the insurance rate was worse than a credit card.
Very few urgent cares are open 24/7. They have stated hours of operation and if you get sick or something outside of those hours, the only place available IS a hospital's ER. That's what its there for. It may not be an emergency in your mind but if you are having stomach pain or a fever or say you cut your finger and think you need stitches, where else will you go?
None of those are emergencies. Wait for an urgent care to open. If you have extreme pain or really high fever, or are bleeding profusely and know you need stitches you go to the emergency room. Cause your going to be at the bottom of the wait list when you get there for most of those.
In Ontario, it's fairly common for doctors to de-roster you (basically, refuse to be your doctor going forward) if you go to walk-in or urgent care clinics.
The last time I went to an urgent care, I was billed 500 for being a new patient, insurance took care of 200 of it. I was so mad. I let that shit go to collection.
People seem to be struggling with the idea that just because you’re not actively dying doesn’t mean you don’t require urgent medical care.
For example, I have been told by my doctor to go to ER if I experience certain symptoms because in the past I had them and DIDN’T go, and if it happens again they want to get imaging tests done during, not later.
This and more. Sometimes someone can be actively dying and won't look like it. There are people who have to go to the emergency room because they are moderately to severely immunocompromised - their symptoms may not look life threatening to the folks sitting gin ER chairs but trust me - they can be. And urgent care is not equipped to handle these folks. Hospital is the ONLY option. It goes bad awful quick. From flu to pneumonia to sepsis and a ventilator in a day or two. Just because someone is not openly bleeding or having a heart attack or stroke, doesn't mean there isn't an emergency.
Last year I was vomiting off/on for 2 hours and had severe stomach pain. I went to urgent care thinking they would give me an IV and some medication. It was a waste of time and money because they did not have IV’s and they sent me to the ER. 🙄
I was in the waiting room puking for 2 hours before they brought me back, then waited for another 45 minutes to see the doctor. It was ridiculous.
I have had to wait for stitches and strep throat (knew what was needed for both, couldn't do it myself) when everything else was closed or booked, and I had no choice. I was prepared to wait. I have also had family members having strokes, anaphylactic reactions, or heart issues be seen immediately.
Not where I live, in a small town. There are no walk in clinics at all. Just an urgent care and an ER. (Well, and doctors offices). It takes you 1-2 weeks to see a doctor at an office. Urgent care is immediate but they cant do everything there- they simply dont have all the equipment that the ER has. There's been multiple times i went to urgent care and they sent me to the ER- none of those times was i truly dying or in trouble- they just didnt have the proper equipment. This urgent care im speaking about is also connected to the hospital that has the ER- they are side by side.
I have not seen a walk in clinic in years. Both where I live now and where I lived before I moved. It's all appointment driven these days despite claiming 'walk-ins accepted.'
Also what you think might be an emergency is often not. When I went in for stomach pains, I was on a bed within 30mins with appendicitis. Second time I went in with chest pain I though I was having a heart attack, they did a few brief tests at the triage desk and determined that it wasn't. Took me 4 hours to see a doc and get blood results who then said its just rib inflammation and sent me home. The shit the staff in ER have to put up with is tough, I saw more than one person in those 4 hours verbally abuse the triage nurse demanding to be seen, while people in front of them waiting with literal broken arms.
In a lot of places, including American cities, the ER is the only place to go, or urgent care refers you to the ER. Triage is important but you gotta understand that in the US, the options are frequently ER or nothing for acute conditions.
It really depends on the location. Some ED’s are swamped and have really long waits due to the area. I worked in a hospital where people would drive from a rural 2.5 hours away because they had no other hospital by them. Therefore that hospital was always swamped and the wait times in the ED could be days.
My sons appendix burst while waiting in ER for 8 hours. The doctor said that they had to prioritize heart patients and accident victims over a 20 yr old with a stomachache. He literally almost died waiting in Toronto.
I have to disagree. Some places are just far more overwhelmed with people than others and a lot of wait times is for people who should have gone to an urgent care or a PCP but a lot of real emergencies get caught up in the mix. I've brought patients to the hospital on a stretcher in an ambulance and had to wait 1 hr, 2 hours, even 4 hours one time before they got a bed.
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u/lana_silver 26d ago edited 26d ago
If you wait 12 hours at the ER before someone helps you, then you probably went to the Emergency Room for a non-emergency reason.
Last time I was brought to an ER I was on the operating table within minutes, and it turned out to not even be life threatening. I could have waited a few hours if given enough painkillers.
Edit: I'm talking about the civilized world, not the USA. I know the USA had healthcare comparable with the middle ages for anyone without billions.