Going to Urgent Care or an Emergency Room it is not a pleasant experience. If you are the patient it means many hours of tests, procedures and questions. If you are with the patient it means unending hours of waiting and anticipation.
Before you are even seen by a doctor, there is triage. They need insurance cards, medication information, vital signs and a vast amount of questions. Then you wait to be taken to a very uncomfortable gurney in one of the many cubicles. There you wait for the nurse to appear and ask more questions. Finally after being there for anywhere from a half hour to over one hour you see the doctor. They ask all the questions over again and tell you they need to run tests. Again you wait for the technicians for any tests that need to be done. Blood, X-rays, CT scans etc. When you finish all the tests you wait for the results. These can take a few hours. Finally you see the doctor again. The results show this or that but they will have to contact your family doctor to see what they have to say about the situation. This takes a long time because they are not usually available. By this time you have been there 5 or 6 hours, are hungry, tired and crabby. The non-patient feels even worse. Finally the Word. Go home and follow up with your doctor.
Of course there are many serious situations that occur in emergency rooms. I am not trying to belittle the nurses, doctors or staff at these facilities. They work very hard and help to save many lives. It may not be possible to speed things up, but for injuries that are not life threatening could there be a better way?
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