As an RN and an occasional patient, what I see as a major ER problem as people utilizing the ER for non-emergent reasons. ER's are required to evaluate you if you are willing to wait. So bringing your kid in with an ear infection that could be treated at a clinic is a problem. People coming in with colds and lacerations that could be treated by a family physician is a problem.

So why do people do this? Surely it's not because they want to wait five hours. It's usually due to insurance and/or immigration status. People have also become savvy to claiming "chest pain" upon coming into the ER because they know they'll be evaluated sooner.

We need a fix, and it's not in blaming hospitals or floor nurses (I'd love to blame the doctors but it's not them either). It's in health care reform from the top down. And in personal responibility.

If "chest pain" is an automatic in, our local ER sure doesn't know it! I brought my husband to the ER about six years ago when he was complaining of chest pain. We sat in the waiting room for almost three hours and were NEVER seen. He finally got frustrated and went home. He figured if it got worse, he'd call an ambulance. (Thankfully, it got better on its own.)

REBELFANJENNY

No matter what hospital you're in someone complaining of chest pain will be triaged above most other conditions. However, some facilities may draw labs in the waiting room. If the cardiac enzymes aren't elevated then the patient won't be triaged as high. Now, we triage to determine in what order patients come back. However, if there is not a bed available, it doesn't matter how high the patient is on the list, they will have to wait for a bed. I imagine this is what happened with your husband. He may have been high on the list but with no available beds.

By the way, despite the chest pain subsiding, I hope your husband followed up with your primary care physician.

In our ER we run a STAT EKG on all patients complaining of "chest pain" as well as cardiac enzymes. The EKG is evaluated by an ER MD and if it is not a STEMI (S-T elevation myocardial infarction) they will wait. Thousands of conditions cause pain in the chest area, very few of them (like "rebelfanjenny's" husband) are life threatening.

If your husband's chest pain "got better on it's own" he didn't belong in the ER in the first place!