Does most people go to emergency room for emergency reason?

hello, clorissa. well, sometimes going to the emergency room instead of scheduling a doctor's appointment has become a trend. these people didn't know that they wasted a lot of time too because emergency rooms are not set up to care for routine illness, and they do not work on a firt-come, first-served basis as people mistakenly believe. emergency rooms use a triage(french for "sorting") system for evaluation so that critical cases are treated first. Happy posting.

They have to accept them and evaluate them all. Unfortunately the non emergency visits take up their time and this causes everyone else to have longer waits. Thank goodness for urgent care facilities. I go there now rather than the hospital. Had to go Monday night for my son. We thought he broke his foot but it was just severely sprained. Urgent care took an xray, wrapped it and gave us a prescription. Took all of about 45 minutes.

I think I have only ever visited ER for myself once in my entire life. I remember when I was a kid, I had quite a bad accident when I was playing around at home, and I ended up cutting myself very badly and deeply. My parents rushed me to ER where they took care of me. I wouldn't go unless I felt I had no other option. You usually have to wait for ages before you get seen in ER so it's not worth it unless you have no choice.

I dont think a lot of people go to the emergency room for emergency reasons. The reason I say this is because I've sent my wife before and the screening takes so much time (they will ask you question, why are you there, what is your illness before you are even allowed to enter the ER). There is even a poster in the ER that gives the public guidelines on what is considered an emergency reason. I'm sure there are a lot of people who go to the ER for non emergency reason; thats why they put the poster up there.

as far as i ve heard ,they take in ER cases in to the emergency room and diagnose, if nothing serious is found, they send them to the normal wards and if its a serious case, they use the room.

I'am a nursing staff here in a local hospital. I want to share that not all who passes the ER are emergency cases.. Some might not be, but they need medical attention and need to be admitted. For those who pass the ER are for admission. If they are only for check up, they'll go through the OPD/ out patient department.. Some stubborn people uses the ER to seek medical attention right away to avoid the heavy line waiting for the physician or waiting for the priority number.

clorissa my experience is that they take the worst cases first, that are in really dire need,triage it is called, then work on down to the least severe. when I came into the er. by cab,bleeding heavily from my rectum I was taken in before a young woman with a cut hand, I guess they figured they needed to get the bleeding stopped soon or else,also I was 80 and the girl was probably 20, anyway boy they got me out of my blood soaked clothes, and had all sorts of tests, and finally at almost midnight they found an empty bed and admitted me. took five days and more tests to find out that of all things the blackberries I had ate,had gathered in a diverticuli in my colon and nicked a blood vessel. they call it bleeding diverticulitis,had four blood transfusions before they got the bleeding stopped. I don't think they really do turn many people away , not that I know of anyway.

Everyone complains about the waiting time in our Accident & Emergency Departments but, if they were used ONLY for accidents and emergencies, I'm sure the wait would be considerably less. Gettting past the receptionist and through the appointment system at the doctors surgery can be a bit of a trial so some people go straight to A&E. Also, they'll go for trivial things that they could treat themselves or symptoms they've had for a while but didnt want to take time off work for appointments & some are just drunk. Unfortunately, they all have to be seen... which is why genuine cases end up lying on trolleys in corridors for hours.

They have to accept them all. The only time my family use the emergency room is an emergency. My sister sliced up her finger really badly, and they went. My parents have been a couple times. But we don't go unless it's a real emergency.

Hello my dear clorissa, have you had to have yet another tiresome trip with that accident prone co worker of yours, she really needs to be less clumsy. Now I believe my dear that you should consider the possibility that Miss clumsy at work is freuenting these places trying to catch the eye of some nice young doctor so if you go with her make sure you don't get any of her nasty blood on your nice clothes.

Emergency room should really be for emergency cases, however there are people who go there to escape the bore dome in their houses. Just like some people in the middle east, they go to the hospital for just a small cut which is not categorize as emergency case. People in there advise them what to do in cases like those so that they don't need to go to the emergency room.

The ER cannot turn away any patient unless the whole ER is completely full. The do take care of the most critical first, but they will see everyone. I personally don't go to the ER because I feel guilty. I have been told that there have been times when I should have gone to the ER, because I was very sick, however I felt like I wasn't sick enough to go.

We were just at the emergency room two weeks ago. My husband has been diagnosed with kidney stones, but it just so happened that his decided that it needed to move from his kidney to his bladder after regular doctor's house. This is considered to be an emergency as it could cause your tracts to become blocked. I've never, in my experience seen a person turned away from the emergency room, non-emergency or not. We also had to take my daughter to the emergency room earlier in the year because she had a raging ear infection. She was actually seen promptly for this and we went home with a prescription for antibiotics. Luckily in both of these recent incidents, the hospital emergency room has not been crowded. When, however, there is a back up in the emergency room, the staff will take the most crucial cases first and work their way down to the cases that aren't nearly as crucial. Thus, the person with chest pain would be taken back immediately while the person with a rash could sit there waiting for hours.

I only know what I see from tv. Because I'v never been to the ER but it seems like they take the serious life threatening cases first and eventually get to the others. Something simple can be done by the interns. I'm not so sure about the sending away.

Hello! Here where I live you cant turn away anyone if they want to see a doctor they can and you dont need insurance. Most times they will send you home with free small trail things to help the person out like if they have asthma and need an exhaler or if someone needs some pills for an infection . Long time ago I saw a special where many junkies will fake pain just to get a fix on a shot or something. Like scream saying I am in pain but they cant find nothing wrong with them and send them home but most times they gave them something for the fake pain . I think for the most part people who go really need to go .

The answer to your question varies greatly from geographic area to geographic area. A good friend of mine is an ER doctor. We have discussed the issue of non-emergency visits to the ER. While the issue does seem to vary, there tend to be some factors that affect how overused an ER is. A person's immigration status. US citizens tend to be more likely than illegal immigrants to use family physicians. Speculation leads us to believe that this is due to ER visits being more anonymous than family physicians. ER's tend to not realize they have been given an invalid social security number until they try to collect the bill. Whether or not a person has private or government health insurance. People who either have health insurance from work or pay for it on their own tend to use the ER for emergency visits. Again, speculation is that this is due to the cost of co-pays. Co-pays are higher for ER visits than doctor's offices. While people on government plans (i.e. Medicaid) tend to use the ER more frequently. This is thought to be because they do not "have a dog in the fight". Their costs are being absorbed by the taxpayers not themselves. These are just two factors that affect whether a person overuses the ER. The second part of your question is about how the ER handles these non-emergency patients. This is very different than my answer above. The ER has to handle every patient that comes through its doors. Laws like the "Patient's Bill of Rights" have ensured that no patient can be turned away. Initially, these were passed to ensure that someone without insurance would not be turned away. In reality, it has caused an influx of non-emergency cases because they know they will not be turned away. ERs use a triage system. They triage each patient on the severity of their illness. When a person comes into the ER, they are seen by either a nurse or in some cases an Emergency Medical Technician. This person takes their vital signs, gets their chief complaints, and reports to a nurse and/or doctor that then prioritizes them. Hopefully, this has provided some insight into the ER system. For me, it also provides some insight into the potential problems of a government run health care system.

Hello clorissa123 Great question, I believe they have to see all potential patients, admitting is another story, personally I would never go to the ER if not for an emergency I don't like the idea of sitting around sick people for no reason at all, some people are hypocondriacs any little things sends them running to the ER, its been my experience they will see you but not admit you for just any little thing.