What is the average wait in a hospital...? Someone I know is having chest pains, but they have to wait to be seen...

peacenlovealways said:

I guess it depends if it's an acute disease or not.

depends on the hospital
depends on how bad the pain is
depends on how many are already in the ER
depends on if the hospital is public or private

The wait could be anywhere from non-existant to 8-12 hours.

health insurance--quickly
no health insurance--2-3 days



i exagerrate of course, but i've had aetna hmo for 12 years now, and i swear i've never had to wait more than a coupla hours from check in to check out. my sister, who has no health insurance, just spent 14 hours in the er to find out she had meningitis and required hospitilization. i got a bite from a dog in petsmart and got a tetanus shot, a doctor , 3 nurses and some orange juice and was on my way home in 90 minutes

Are you talking about seeing your primary care phisician? That should be no more than an hour or two, even in an American hospital.


If you're talking about showing up at an emergency ward, then they'll assess you as the perform triage. Insured = 1 to 3 hours.

Uninsured could be up to 6 hours depending on the hospital.



American hospitals suck arse if you're not over-brimming with money or going to a prestigious hospital.

thanks guys...they took her and gave her an xray...just waiting for results....

peacenlovealways said:

hope she's okay

People with chest pains are supposed to be given priority. I had to go to the hospital for this last year and I was seen immediately with no insurance.

Vendetta1 said:

she has insurance...

thekidsgirl said:

thanks!

LeCram said:

seen at all? has triage already made an assessment?

^^^why are you guys using those big words I don't understand...?

peacenlovealways said:

wasn't there a little window at the hospital that had a sign that said "triage nurse" and you present yourself there when you arrive at the hospital, and they decide where you go in the queue? That is how it works here.

ZombieKitten said:

it was my mom...she called me...I'm at home...then she text me a few times...I just sent her message..so waiting for a reply. this happened to her before, but they sent her home....

ZombieKitten said:

I think Australia is a bit more advanced when it comes to 'Medical Services' - we can wait between 2 to 4 hours in a Sydney hospital if it's not an emergency - and we still tend to complain about that, not realising how hard it is else where.

Although there have been situations where things have gone drastically wrong resulting in deaths due to Triage making really bad decisions about how far down the waiting list some people go.

peacenlovealways said:

For that exact thing.....EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS! I was yanking my then-roommate out of there (he was the one w/ the pains). They wanted to keep him overnight, but we had determined that it wasn't a heart attack. It was probably a muscle thing actually, not a heart thing.

chocolatehandles said:

yeah cause it's not an actual diagnosis being made really, just a decision based on available information that has to be made fast

I've had to wait about 2 hours before with a massive infection. I was deteriorating in the waiting room before their very eyes! The moved me up the queue and man they worked quick once I was behind the curtains!

ZombieKitten said:

My daughter had a reaction to nuts, by the time we got to the kids hospital she could hardly breath, the Triage told me to go back to the queue (I pushed in like a crazy woman) luckily the nurse standing next to her grabbed my daughter out of my hands and pressed the panic button for help.
Sometimes they just don't get it!
I always wonder how they would react if it was someone they knew

Vendetta1 said:

Chestpains..I had the classic heart attack symptoms...and waited over three hours to be triaged...was in the ER over 9 hours...

Insured.

she's home safe...just a viral lung infection...

oh my..i hope she feels better soon~~~

last time i was in the er was to take my son in, he had blurry vision. we went to the desk & they said we will call you soon, 20 mins later they took sons blood preasure ..this took 30 minutes & i was wondering what was taking so long!
they brought me into a semi-private room & he was in bed wearing a gown & they said he had "dangerously high blood presure" that was why he had blurry vision....Im really glad we went when we did.

I hate going to the ER...its always along long wait.

chocolatehandles said:

OH MY GOD!!!!!
that's awful, you just have to stand your ground

I'm told by a cousin who is an ER nurse that intake is trained to respond most immediately to three things: labor, profuse bleeding and serious breathing trouble. (I'm guessing loss of consciousness would be up there too, though. ) It's tough to fake a pregnancy, and I've not met many who'd willfully draw blood for shock and awe, but if you ever want to fast track in an ER -- and it doesn't seem altogether absurd in combination with your actual presenting problem (i.e. don't do this for a broken pinky) -- apparently you should complain (or better: have someone accompanying you complain as you put on an Oscar-worthy performance) that you are having real trouble breathing.

...Of course, we should all keep in mind that when we force priority for ourselves in an ER, we necessarily take away attention from patients in potentially more pressing situations.
[Edited 10/5/09 23:57pm]

this is what I thought of when I read the title of the thread. When U r in a regular ward...beyondthe whole ER thing and r in a bed in the hostipal and all. When U ask a nurse for somethin, there's a wait time between when U ask for it and when it happens. Some nurses, when I ask for my pain shots...demerol, dilauded, morphine and the like. Some nurses r back with a swiftness and some lollygag around. That shit irritates the piss outta me. U're laying there in bed, in decent amounts of pain. I't past the4 hour mark or 6 hour mark...whatever it may be and U politely ask the nurse for your shot and sometimes it takes a whole hour for that bitch to come back with your meds. Some nurses though r on it and be back right away. When they lolly gag around I think to myself that they MUST reliaze u're in pain but just take their time anyway. U can hear your specific nurse gossiping in the hall or at the nure's station. It seems the can find any old thing to do OTHER than give U the meds u're entitled to. Makes me wanna slice their belly open with a scalpel and drag my feet when they're beggin for something to cut the pain.

Because of my private healthcare I don't wait.

It's 6 hours, unless an ambulance or the police bring you in.

Dayclear said:

Our 8 hour wait that I noted above was after we had initially made a trip to my friend's doctor. They called an ambulance, and drove him to the hospital. I followed behind. After all that, it was still 8 hours for chest pains.

I just got back from taking my daughter to the ER and amazingly we were in and out of there in about an hour

veronikka said:

Wow hope she is okay lovely...