Nightmarish emergency room wait times are not the ...

Nightmarish emergency room wait times are not the fault of hospitals. One would be misinformed if they blamed that on a hospital. Managing that situation is where a hospital plays a major role.

The doctors we experienced on Fri June 21 in the emergency room were first class. I felt as I should have given each a huge tip the way you do for any good service.

The triage nurse was a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. She was compassionate when she communicated with my wife to obtain the required information but in the process of communicating she looked back at her colleagues on 3 occasions to continue a separate conversation which was an inside joke of theirs that they were all going to call in sick tomorrow, a jab at how busy it was, giggling each time. She would then turn around and wipe the smile off her face to continue her duties with my wife.

The lone nurse who was inside the second room where doctors are looking at patient was the worst, was very comfortable in being rude. She told my wife to take off her clothes but did not
provide a gown. There was no need for her to disrobe. When a blanket was requested her response was the she needed to wait as she only has two arms and two legs (a sufficient amount of limbs to grab a blanket from a shelf). I had heard her say that to someone else prior. My wife waited as she replaced the paper covers on beds. After 10 minutes I visually looked around for a shelf that had blankets and grabbed one myself, a process that would have taken her 30 seconds. She came with a blanket 5 minutes after I grabbed one myself. That s what patient experience has come down to, after a 4.5 hour wait, a request for a blanket is treated as such an onerous request.