5 ms·

Did you go to an emergency room in 2019, by chance? Waiting many hours to be admitted has been the norm in American healthcare for a very long time.

drewg123 5y ago
According to the staff, the temporary holding area I was in (an office cube farm converted to holding patients in recliners) was new, as was the practice of lining every available hallway with people in beds. I went to this hospital specifically because it was close to home (riding in a car with an appendicitis is agony), and because it advertised low wait times. It turns out the low wait time was to be triaged, not to be treated.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Sure but now the times are astronomical and they may take one look at you and say you're too far gone and let you die because ICU simply doesn't have any beds. So some dummy who wouldn't get the vaccine just killed (by proxy) your relative most likely.
slenk 5y ago
People lining the hallways waiting is not the norm in American healthcare
- a_conservative 5y ago
  FYI, here is an article from The Atlantic describing just that from 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/emergency-room-wait-times-sexism/410515/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/emergency... It may not be the norm, but how unusual was it?
  - slenk 5y ago
    Eesh. I guess I am lucky where I live - even when the hospitals are at 95% capacity I got stitches real quick a month ago
    - stjohnswarts 5y ago
      They're generally talking about ICUs and the like. You didn't need ICU for stitches most likely.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    Please point a time out where it was spread across the country in recent memory at our current scale. You can't. No one is saying some regional event won't do it (hurricane for example). However currently it's a much bigger issue particularly in states that are still saying covid is basically the flu while their hospitals are over full and they're begging traveling doctors and nurses to come and help out.
a_conservative 5y ago
Thank you for this needed comment. ER wait times were a problem before Covid. I've experienced waiting in an ER with a loved one who was convulsing, it was extremely scary and sobering to see how long we waited (about an hour or so). This was before covid. Emergency Rooms were scary and full before Covid!
- ecommerceguy 5y ago
  I was hospitalized with the FLU Jan 20th 2016, that day this particular Hospital (a major university hospital in a large US city) reached a record for number of patients admitted. That record still stands to this day.
  - a_conservative 5y ago
    That's really interesting! Did the hospital or staff seem to have trouble keeping up with patients?

drewg123 5y ago

According to the staff, the temporary holding area I was in (an office cube farm converted to holding patients in recliners) was new, as was the practice of lining every available hallway with people in beds. I went to this hospital specifically because it was close to home (riding in a car with an appendicitis is agony), and because it advertised low wait times. It turns out the low wait time was to be triaged, not to be treated.

stjohnswarts 5y ago
Sure but now the times are astronomical and they may take one look at you and say you're too far gone and let you die because ICU simply doesn't have any beds. So some dummy who wouldn't get the vaccine just killed (by proxy) your relative most likely.

slenk 5y ago

People lining the hallways waiting is not the norm in American healthcare

a_conservative 5y ago
FYI, here is an article from The Atlantic describing just that from 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/emergency-room-wait-times-sexism/410515/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/emergency... It may not be the norm, but how unusual was it?
- slenk 5y ago
  Eesh. I guess I am lucky where I live - even when the hospitals are at 95% capacity I got stitches real quick a month ago
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    They're generally talking about ICUs and the like. You didn't need ICU for stitches most likely.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Please point a time out where it was spread across the country in recent memory at our current scale. You can't. No one is saying some regional event won't do it (hurricane for example). However currently it's a much bigger issue particularly in states that are still saying covid is basically the flu while their hospitals are over full and they're begging traveling doctors and nurses to come and help out.

a_conservative 5y ago

Thank you for this needed comment. ER wait times were a problem before Covid. I've experienced waiting in an ER with a loved one who was convulsing, it was extremely scary and sobering to see how long we waited (about an hour or so). This was before covid. Emergency Rooms were scary and full before Covid!

ecommerceguy 5y ago
I was hospitalized with the FLU Jan 20th 2016, that day this particular Hospital (a major university hospital in a large US city) reached a record for number of patients admitted. That record still stands to this day.
- a_conservative 5y ago
  That's really interesting! Did the hospital or staff seem to have trouble keeping up with patients?