I am in complete agreement with the nurses and doctors that are posting about these wait times. When I read this article I couldn't believe what I was reading. I was a night charge nurse in a Level One Trauma Center and I was NEVER told to keep admitted patients in the ER to boost the bottom line. I do agree that boarding admitted patients in the ER is a huge problem and the hospital that I worked at was doing everything they could to rectify the problem.

However, I wholeheartedly believe that the problem with the ER system is MISUSE! Patients complain endlessly about the wait times but they don't realize that they are the cause of it. If the ER's were used for emergencies only and the minor complaints such as sore throats, colds, nonexistent fevers in children, etc. were told that they did not have an emergency and they needed to follow up with a regular doctor, the wait times would greatly decrease. Also the level of care that patients have come to expect would be easier to deliver. We are not able to tell patients that they do not have an emergency due to several restrictions placed upon us by governing agencies. Basically, if you check in, you HAVE to be seen. This would have to change. People today are rude and can become hostile when they are actually told something that they don't want to hear. I don't know why but people believe that they know more about healthcare and medicine than the people that are actually trained to deliver the service! Why is that?? Businesses all over the United States "maintain the right to refuse service to anyone." Why should ER's be any different? Patients check in and some of them immediately become rude and abrasive towards the nurses during the triage process, oftentimes refusing necessary tasks such as vital signs, blood draws, etc. It's ridiculous that these people are able to get away with this type of behavior. If they don't warrant emergency service then they MUST be turned away, to see an urgent care clinic or a primary doctor. Place healthcare back into the hands of the people that deliver it and wait times will go down and patient satisfaction will go up. It's that simple!

There is so much more to the problem than this but it's a good start. I would really love to see an article written about the class and quality of patient that we deal with in the ER and expose them as the rude, crude, and trash talking people that they are.