Current Hospital Wait Time

By: Brianna Madison

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On Saturday, September 11 I was taken to Fort Sanders Medical Center Emergency Room due to a concussion. My mother and I were there from 3:30 pm to 12:00 am and were never called back to get a CT scan, so we ended up leaving, and we were not the only ones. Several others had decided to leave as well because it was extremely late and they did not believe that they were ever going to get called back. We saw patients sleeping in the waiting room and pregnant ladies who looked as though they were going to give birth right then and there. They still hadn't been called back when I had left.

According to Dr. Wright, one of the medical specialists at Fort Sanders, they have patients that have currently been waiting there for over 24 hours to be taken back to be checked upon. He states that the current hospital wait times are some of the highest that they have ever been, and that does not just apply to Fort Sanders. Children’s Hospital and Parkwest both reportedly have insanely long wait times as well. And even though I was not there to experience what those were like, I can only imagine based on how my visit with Fort Sanders went.

So what can be done to fix this? What can be done to help patients be seen quicker? One solution is implementing a pull system where once one task is done, a signal is sent to make everyone aware of it and immediately another task can be moved onto. Another way that the high wait time can be fixed is by creating special patient protocols. They could have predetermined protocols that must be followed for specific medical issues such as chest pain, body injuries, and in my case, head injuries. With a more efficient system, hospitals will be able to lower the wait time and see patients who desperately need to be evaluated faster.