Not the reception area, but after you’ve been taken to a room and told “The doctor will be with you shortly”?
Many years ago in the middle of a Seattle winter, when I still lived on the streets, I had chest and sinus congestion so bad I could barely breathe, so I walked to the nearest emergency room. After waiting about 40 minutes to be called, I was taken to a little room and told to take off my clothes and put on a hospital gown, and as the aide left she said, “The doctor will be with you shortly.”
It wasn’t “shortly”.
It was 3 hours and 45 minutes when they found me exhausted and sleeping beside the bed I don’t even remember falling off of. In comparison, the actually exam took maybe 10 minutes at best, at the end of which the doctor wrote out prescriptions for antibiotics and cough syrup then left the room.
ER doctor checking in: we try to coach our staff not to say “soon” or “shortly” but instead to say “as soon as possible” for this very reason.
Sometimes when there are long wait times it is due to high volumes. In those cases it’s an issue getting a room but once you do, the provider can get to you quickly.
Sometimes it’s an issue of high acuity patients monopolizing the providers’ time. In that case you might get a room relatively quickly but no one is able to see you right away.
And sometimes it is both at the same time in which case a bunch of people just have to wait.
In our ER when it’s crowded and you don’t really have an emergency, hours is not uncommon. Friday nights when it’s busy, you could be there all night without seeing someone. Our hospital is a university hospital, so state run. People with no money are aware that they tend to be very lackadaisical enforcing payment, so I’ve seen the waiting room full of 40 or 50 people with non-emergency issues.When I went in with a kidney stone a couple of weeks ago, I was seen in about ten minutes. After they had morphined me up though it was about 5 hours until an actual doctor checked back. Generally speaking, if you’re there for antibiotics, you should expect to be there a very long time. Going to an urgent care is going to be a cheaper and faster option.
Never been long, as I never go unless it’s something potentially serious, which has been maybe two or three times in my life.
There was no Urgency Care available in my area, they had no idea I was in there for antibiotics since I hadn’t been seen yet, and the fact that I had passed out and hit the floor but wasn’t attended to until more than three hours later shows that they hadn’t even poked their heads in to see if I was still alive during that time.
I’ve never had to wait more than a few minutes. I am the opposite of a hypochondriac. I worry that I am not sick enough to justify seeking medical care.
When my gallbladder was ready to burst, I did not seek care until I saw my yellow sclera in a mirror. I had gone 3 days in constant pain, unable to sleep.
When I had unstable angina with horrible chest pain I figured since I did not die it must not be my heart. I drank Maalox for a month. Turns out I’d had a heart attack and just got through it.
I’ve been to the ER once in my life, and it was like 6 hours before a doctor saw me.
I took a roommate once to the ER for what turned out to be appendicitis. We waited for 8 hours before finally leaving and going to another hospital, where we were seen in about 2.
I took a friend to the ER when she had appendicitis. She* knew* she had appendicitis (she was in medical school) and her certainty seemed to bother the ER doc who examined her. He diagnosed “GI virus” and sent her home with a pamphlet suggesting home care of vomiting.
Three hours later her room-mate called an ambulance. Her appendix had ruptured and she had passed out. The hospital’s attorney discussed what had happened on her first presentation. She had no medical insurance at the time and was happy to sign a release in exchange for a free appendectomy.
Last summer I stepped on a nail in the yard at around midnight on a weeknight. Went to the closest Urgent Care clinic for a tetanus shot. Talked to the triage nurse and was put in a room almost right away. Just under 2 hours later a nurse came in, gave me the shot, gave me a prescription for cipro and sent me on my way.
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I’ve never had to wait more than 4 hours, and that was for a pretty cut which needed a check for glass and a few stitches. The local ER (or A & E as it’s known here) doubles as a minor injury unit, and it was out of normal doctor’s hours, so that was the locally appropriate option.
There used to be a poster up in one of the local A & E’s saying (paraphrased) “You’re having to wait? Be glad! The people we’re seeing immediately are having a much worse day than you.”
ER about 10h, for my SO which I was with her, for me I left after 2.5 h as I can’t stand waiting and sought alternate treatment via cell phone reservation.
After hours and hours waiting for my sprained/dislocated knee to be attended to the doc was just entering the room when a very distressed father ran into the triage area with his son, who had half his face covered with a dishtowel so soaked in blood it was literally dripping, blood running down the kid’s arm and off his elbow, a trail of blood and bloody footprints behind him.
A nurse apologized but said I would have to wait some time longer.
It was not a happy night, but yeah, I could see where they would take the kid fountaining blood ahead of the abused knee.
Went to the ER with a nasty case of pneumonia. High fever, productive cough and massive misery. Nurse took my vitals within 5 minutes but it took a couple of hours to actually see a doctor. She looked me over for less than two minutes, ordered a chest scan, waited for the results and admitted me promptly.
An experienced ER doc doesn’t need more than a few minutes to know which tests s/he wants to order and, in a majority of cases, what the eventual disposition will be (admit vs discharge vs transfer).
I’m aware of that. My point is that it took two hours to see the doc at all.
The nurse who did the initial stuff did triage and ranked you below other patients. As rough as those 2 hours were, in their judgment (and of course they could have been wrong) you weren’t urgent enough to jump to the head of the line.
Of course, with pneumonia, I would hope they were at least checking on you periodically because I assume that could go nasty fairly quickly (if you have asthma or other health issues).
About 13 years ago, I fell and broke my elbow while we were on vacation. I took a cab to a hospital while my husband stayed at the hotel with the kids. It was some little while before I even spoke with a nurse, and at least another 2 hours before I saw a doctor. It wasn’t fun, but I knew my elbow was not urgent enough so I didn’t fuss about it. Interestingly, and I’ve told this story before: they took an X-ray, said it wasn’t broken… and sent me on my way with an unasked-for scrip for Vicodin :eek: (I had it checked after we got back and yeah, it was broken). Evidently, if you want to get Good Drugs, the key is to NOT ask for them!!
And a year or so after that, Moon Unit fell and started complaining that her back hurt. I called the pediatrician and he said we should go to the hospital. They took her back to a cubicle and ultimately we saw a doctor; it was 2-3 hours (and this was on a not-too-crazy Sunday night). To be fair, they did an X-ray in the interim, and we only saw the doctor after the X-ray had been done.
So at least some cases, the long wait may be partly used by by lab / X-ray etc.
Maybe an hour? I can’t remember. I’ve only been to the ER 3 times in the last 30 years and every time it was pretty urgent.
The time I waited the longest was the time I fell while pregnant. They took me back, determined I had done nothing to the baby and then I waited maybe an hour or so for them to bind up my ankle which was only sprained. I wouldn’t have even gone to the ER if I hadn’t been pregnant and worried about hurting the baby. I didn’t even get to wait in a room, though. I waited on a gurney in the hallway.
The other two times, I was treated pretty much right away. Tends to happen if you are seriously ill and severely dehydrated, or you have a gaping dog bite wound on your arm.
Both in Japan and Taiwan we haven’t had to wait long for either me (chest pains, wasn’t my heart) or my kids. I’d say 30 minutes was probably the maximum.
You are probably doing it wrong. On my only visit, I arrived by helicopter and left by helicopter, and they didn’t keep me waiting.