10 hour emergency room visit?!
Question: I sat in a hospital emergency room for 10 hours and had not even been seen by a doctor. I was (and still am) unable to swallow without extreme pain. My ears are also very full and are constantly popping. I also feel very tired and irritably. I got a needle put into me 3 times in order to draw blood and they told me that it was possibly dehydration that caused my veins to lapse. Though regardless of this diagnosis I was not able to see a doctor I ended up going home because I was feeling violently ill. I was told by a person who had a family member in the nurse region that if you go to the Er and you are not dying they will let you sit in order to "Teach you a lesson". Any feedback? In case your wondering it was Tampa General Hospital located in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Answers: I sat in a hospital emergency room for 10 hours and had not even been seen by a doctor. I was (and still am) unable to swallow without extreme pain. My ears are also very full and are constantly popping. I also feel very tired and irritably. I got a needle put into me 3 times in order to draw blood and they told me that it was possibly dehydration that caused my veins to lapse. Though regardless of this diagnosis I was not able to see a doctor I ended up going home because I was feeling violently ill. I was told by a person who had a family member in the nurse region that if you go to the Er and you are not dying they will let you sit in order to "Teach you a lesson". Any feedback? In case your wondering it was Tampa General Hospital located in Tampa Bay, Florida.
WOW! that service is even worse than here in Edmonton (Canada).. and I thought we had it bad! I would have expected private health care to have quicker ER times. That is what we keep hearing from the proponents of private health care here (I am against private health care, as it is now, our medical expenses are taken care of, for the most part)
Anyway, I know here the ER does get to you although sometimes you have to wait (unless you get brought in by an ambulance since the paramedics have to stay with the patient until they are admitted and have a bed in the ER (not just a gurney in the hallway). Anyway, they want the paramedics back out on the streets so they look after the ambulance people first). I went in a few years ago (in another province) with a very high fever and I was looked at within the hour.
My boyfriend was recently hit by a large truck about 3.5 weeks ago. He was brought in by ambulance and taken to trauma. He has really deep road rash (that needs a graft this week and unknown muscle and tendon/ligament damage. Anyway, I had to rush him to the ER due to pain a week after the accident. They got him a gurney in about 2 hours. They did lots of tests and stuff so we were there for a total of about 5 hours although for an ER, the service was good. About a week later, I rushed him in again due to excruciating pain and horrible swelling (suddenly more than before). It was 4:30am when we got there and we waited until about 8:30 to get a gurney. We then had to wait another hour until a doctor came to look at him. A doctor did give him some stronger pain meds while we waited though - which was good. I think that there were only 2 doctors in the ER that night though, and there had been a shooting victim that was brought in just before we got there - which isn't a usual situation here, so I think that they were really busy trying to work on her and all the other patients waiting. It's a pain in the butt but at least we get looked at here.
do you have medi-centres in Tampa Bay? (walk-in clinics). I would suggest going there because it sounds like you have to go to a specialist. I am not sure if that costs anything there but I think that might be a better way to go. Do you have a family doctor? That would probably be a good idea, so that you can get continuing care from one person, so it's easier to get treatment!
Good luck with your situation!
Um, no....WHy would healthcare providers do this. As a person that grew up in South LA I used to fo to County ERs and wait days to get seen...and was always mad...But as a Nurse working at County now, we see the patients who have life-threatening diagnosis, like gunshot wounds, the trauma patients, the heart attack patients, etc. I know you felt like you were dying, but there are patients worse than you and no they didnt make you wait on purpose, its because they triage the patinets due to their severity... Im sorry we have a crappy healthcare system...
the ER room is a tree-auge station. only the most critical of cases are seen. or the poor. and they don't give a monkeys butt about the poor. if you were to go to a clinic -even a AIDS clinic , you would be seen and you would get better treatment there,and , better attention, some of them are mostly free or low-cost and they service a variety of illness, so go there if you are still suffering from your symptoms and check your local info. there- for one by you. or even walk into a Dr.s office with no appointment. you'll do better than the ER. please don't go to the hospital again you will only hurt yourself more. you can get sick there!
Hmm.... well ER nurses and notorious for being rude. This is partailly because they're so busy. Were they busy that day? I dont think they would purposly refuse you care.