An Insider's Guide to Faster Service in the Emergency Room

Have you experienced the extremely long wait times of an emergency room? Have you sat in a waiting area for what seems like hours on end as you or a loved one waits to be treated by a doctor? Then you know the frustration, boredom, and unease that often arise as you wait to be placed in a room only to wait further still before actually being attended by a doctor. You may have felt helpless to the situation and wondered if there was anything you could possibly do to speed up the entire process and make it easier too. The good news is that there really are ways to make your emergency room visit quicker and get you better quality care. Here you can learn some insider tips that have been proven repeatedly and learned in a five-year ER career.

The first thing to know is to understand why ER wait times are so long. The number one reason for excessive wait times is non emergency cases that end up being treated in the emergency room instead of in a primary care physician's office. If you go into the emergency room with something minor that your own doctor could normally treat, such as a cold you will only after hours of waiting and racking up a several hundred-dollar medical bills be redirected to visit your primary care physician at his or her office. Of course if you are unable to see your own doctor and feel that you are in need of medical attention then you should visit either an urgent care clinic or your local emergency room. The second biggest causes of longer wait times in the ER are major trauma patients that come in either via ambulance or helicopter and require extensive and immediate treatment and care. Sometimes various such cases will present themselves simultaneously and that will tie up the healthcare staff as well as rooms for often hours. The average expected wait time for non life threatening symptoms or injuries can be anywhere from one to six hours depending on the amount of patients and availability of beds. A one to three hour wait is not considered to be an excessive waiting period for the average emergency room visit.