Ways to Reduce Your Wait in the Emergency Room

No one likes to visit the emergency room. Being ill or having a sick child is already a high-stress situation, and when an injury or illness is combined with an hours-long wait, a visit to the emergency room can result in a great deal of pressure and stress. Fortunately, there are some simple things you can do to reduce your wait.

Evaluate your symptoms- Different symptoms can mean different things for different age groups. A fever of 101 may be an emergency for a six month old infant, but not for an adult. Other common ER complaints that are often seen are ear pain, head pain, vomiting and diarrhea. In an otherwise healthy person none of these symptoms are, by themselves, a reason for an ER trip. If the headache is accompanied by a painful or stiff neck or if the vomiting is accompanied by severe abdominal pain and fever, a trip to the hospital is necessary. If you are in doubt as to whether or not your symptoms constitute a real emergency, call you physician for advice.

Check wait times- If you live in an area with more than one hospital, call each emergency room for wait times. If you have specialty hospitals, such as those that deal exclusively with heart disease, you can often be seen immediately. If a hospital has a dedicated trauma center, the wait times for emergency illness can be long, so these emergency are best avoided.

Call ahead- If you have determined that your situation is emergent, call you local emergency room and let them know that you are coming. If you are having cardiac symptoms or have a severely ill young child, the extra time for the hospital to prepare can mean the difference between being seen immediately and having a long wait.