Waiting in the ER - at what point does waiting become unacceptable?

unacceptable? When you are dead. until then suck it up, others may be in much worse shape. BTW welcome to Obama care.

I had a broken leg and was not seen by a doctor for 6 hours. I was admitted and had surgery in the morning. A lot of pain in the meantime.

Reminds me of when I worked in a hospital in Iowa. The ER left a man alone in an exam room for more than 3 hours. He had been told to undress and they would be in shortly. After three hours he decided to roam the halls nude.

Being married to an ER physician, I understand how the system works...they will take and treat those who are in need of care first...the most urgent cases will go first...you should be at least checked in and vitals taken in a reasonable amount of time, then you'll have to wait...and may even be bumped once or twice if a more urgent case comes in...You will be seen in order of relevance. Putting a time limit on your visit to an ER or ED is something you cannot do because there is no way to determine the time of being seen.

I figure anything over three hours. I have walked out and refused to pay for services billed, which I did not receive. Main take away. Don't use emergency rooms at hospitals. Go to an urgent care clinic or see your own doctor unless it is life threatening and you need an ambulance. That's my policy these days.

If an hour goes by without hearing from someone go to the nurses station/desk and ask if they forgot about you. It happens more than you want to believe.

Sorry to hear about your wait but ER's are set up to treat those who have the worst problems first, just like on the field of battle. someone with a flash wound that is in a lot of pain will be pass over for some one who is not talking barely breathing and bleeding slowly from a open hole in their chest or abdomen, it is called triage and was actually develop on the battlefield during WWI and perfected throught out history with every war we have been in sense then. I do see what you mean having been there myself. I once was in a ER and was waiting on the doctors to decied if they would fly me or a 5 year old boy to another hospital, he got the flight when the X-Rays showed his skull fracture. I had to ride 2 hours in a medic unit with peritonitis, the unit was being driven by a medic who was not happy because she had to cancel a hot date to make the trip. So I can see your point, it can suck at itmes but worst case are treadted first.

When you condition deteriorates to the point you or yours ARE now a real emergency dept. patient. Triage nurse: "How long has your child had a fever? It's 104 now." Mom: "All day." Nurse: "You checked him in as, "Sick". You should have told us then. Have you given him any Tylenol or Motrin?" Mom: "No! I wanted you to see that he really has a fever!" (At which point the child starts to seize.)

The specific question has been answered. The general question is Why Does The US Have Very Poor Healthcare, the worst of the Richest 30 Countries, while at the same time, paying waay, waay more for healthcare than any of those nations?

Answer: Our healthcare "system," if this hodgepodge can be called that, is driven by profit. Other countries' healthcare systems are designed to take care of the health of the nation.

Our system is designed to produce maximum profit while providing the average person the least acceptable level of health.

Don't go to the ER for a non-emergency, and you won't have to wait as long.