Having been an ER nurse for 17 years, I hear ya. It really sucks. The whole system is pretty crappy. Think about it. If you're having a heart attack, when yo

Having been an ER nurse for 17 years, I hear ya. It really sucks. The whole system is pretty crappy. Think about it. If you're having a heart attack, when you hit the door of my ER, I am able to pull a trigger that causes huge team of people to spring into action. Our goal is to get you to our Cardiac Cath lab in less than 60 minutes, have an Interventional Cardiologist with 15 years of training under his belt work from 4 feet away, and thread a wire through an artery in your heart that's 3mm wide and inflate a balloon inside of that clogged artery to 8 atmospheres of pressure so that your heart muscle doesn't die. That requires a team of 2-3 nurses, an ER tech, an EKG tech, lab tech and radiology tech in the ER alone. 2 nurses and a Cath tech. An ER doctor, a Radiologist (usually reading films from home). Not to mention the crew in the lab that run the battery of 30 lab tests in less than 20 minutes. Also, registration staff and clerical help to help move the process along. But, when we're not doing that, we take care of ear aches, tooth aches and people who were in fender benders. Not to mention the uninsured alcoholic lays in a gurney in the hall who is swearing at staff, peeing on the floor and in general being unpleasant for 8 hours while he sobers up and can walk out the door. So, yeah. The care that we give is crazy expensive. But, what people don't realize is that using the ER for minor stuff is like going to a Mercedes dealer to get an oil change for your 86 Chevette. The whole system sucks. I'm sorry you had to wait so long to be seen. It's awful.