Marianne Creef

Review of Sentara Albemarle Medical Cent...

Goodness. Where do I start? I read the reviews con...

Goodness. Where do I start? I read the reviews contained here and just had to shake my head. One of the most accurate reviews stated the staff is extremely overworked. That is absolutely true.
2 or 3 of them were completely bogus and obviously made up by people with nothing better to do than slander the reputation of our only major medical facility.
What most people don't take into consideration is the sheer volume of people that move through the ER each and every day. ER stands for EMERGENCY ROOM. However, it is not being used by people with emergencies. People go there for sunburns, or after 3 months they decide the toe that hurts needs to be looked at that day, or someone has cramps and comes in on an ambulance. Because of our healthcare system the majority of people in the ER are using it as their primary physician, NOT an emergency medical facility.
So before you throw stones please consider that 100s of people are going to come through that ER in ONE day, 99% of them will not be emergencies. But guess what people? They ALL have to be assessed, seen by nurses who are worked to death, and then treated.
So if you are there for something like a sunburn or you have an upset stomach GO TO A DOCTORS OFFICE or the walk-in clinic and quit clogging up the ER. That is the only way that wait times are going to be shortened.
And to the person who wants the personnel to come out and tell you WHY you're having to wait so long, I just listed it for you. Because the person who came in with the heart attack, or the automobile accident, or the stabbing, is being worked on by people trying to save their life and the other rooms are full of people with stubbed toes, the flu and sunburns.
Let the people with the real life and death situations be taken care of the way they need to be taken care of and go to the places that are for the non-urgent issues.