subject: The Emergency Room Is Only For Emergencies [print this page] The chances are that you have been in a situation where you needed to get to the emergency room immediately. It could be the middle of the day or way past midnight, but chances are that the emergency room was packed and the first person you had to deal with was the receptionist who has spent the day dealing with dozens of people and all of them had reported that they had a major emergency.
Most of those people are sitting around waiting for their turn with little more than a slight cold or an aching back. To those people, sure, maybe they felt like emergencies. But to the people who come to the emergency room with a broken bone or a bleeding cut, the other emergencies need help and they need help now. The reason that the emergency rooms are so crowded is that so many people visit them for no serious reason.
It is up to the receptionist to prioritize the emergencies and when they will be treated. Obviously they are going to put serious injuries over a head cold, but the person with the head cold doesn't typically care about the person with the broken bones. They want immediate help and typically end up complaining to the receptionist who has enough on her plate already. Before you start yelling at the receptionist, remember that having health insurance doesn't give you priority over someone with a much more serious injury. Consider yourself lucky to have insurance because a lot of the people in that emergency room are not quite as fortunate.
Remember that emergency rooms are exactly what they are called. Rooms where people need to be treated for emergencies, and the people that work there need to prioritize in a way that your head cold might not seem like a really stirring issue. In minor situations, you can avoid the emergency room by simply going to the nearest pharmacy, which is probably closer to your home than the nearest hospital. They can prescribe anything the hospital will and it will take less time.
Don't be afraid to head to the hospital if there is a serious injury because that is what they are there for. Just remember that what you consider to be an emergency, if you think about it, is something you can take care of yourself with a lot less stress on yourself and the person who is running the emergency room.
