How Long Is Too Long for Our Children to Wait in Emergency Rooms?

ER's are funny places. I went to Northeast Baptist, waited 7 hrs until they accidentally began proceedings to amputate my leg. I was their for gallstone pain. I tried to tell them my leg was fine, but the Dr. swore I was in shock. He had the wrong room, which he should have guess by the guy in the next room screaming, "my leg, my leg!" However, when my daughter was 3 days old, we had to take her to the ER (and I wasn't going back to NE Baptist) so we took her to North Central Baptist and were really impressed. No wait, excellent care. Sorry you had to have that experience.

This is a direct result of people not having health insurance. If you want to see a change, you need to vote for someone who will assure every American is insured, so the ER is not utilized so much. That is the only answer to this problem.

The two times I went to North Central Baptist on Stone Oak, there was no one in the waiting room, and we didn't have to wait long. Maybe it's the area of town, I don't know. But for emergencies, I recommend taking your kids there. It will be faster service (and the ER waiting room is really cool!)

Have you ever used the TexasMed Clinic? They take insurance and they have always seen me within 30 minutes. They are all over town. On a day you have time drop by one and talk to them about there policies about children.

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experiences with ERs. Most ERs are so busy at night I try avoid it if I can. I have waited as long as you, if not longer, in most cases. It all depends on how many nurses they have on staff at the time. Please keep in mind there are only so many beds in a ER and they are trying to do the best they can. I try to go to emergency clinics that stay open until 11 pm. If my kids are that sick, I know I will be in for a super long night. I, too, wish there was a better way for the ERs to operate but it has been like this since I can remember. The only time we got in right away was because we arrived by ambulance because my son's pinky finger was severed. My advice is call around the different ERs before leaving to find out the wait time. I have found the North Central Baptist in Stone Oak has been the quickest but it was still a long wait.
Good luck.

How many children can a doctor see at one time and still give good care? How many rooms do they have? Do they start lining kids up in the hall?

No one wants a child to suffer. No one wants a child to have to wait but even doctor and nurses are human and can only do so much.

Please remember too that some people use the ER as a regular doctor office and that in itself can cause a backup.

I am sorry to hear about your experience. I too have had bad experiences with emergency rooms. I took my daughter to an er when she was 2 years old only to wait several hours to hear they didn't know what was wrong with her and they were not equipped for pediatric emergencies. They were able to stablelize her and tell me more than likely it was an allergic reaction to penicillan. They did tell me in the future if I ever had a to take her to the er again to take her to North Central Baptist in the Stone Oak area. I have not had to use that facility (knock on wood). If my kids are sick with a high fever, bad ear infection or some other complaint that can not wait until a regular doctor visit I have been taking them to Good Night Pediatrics in the Stone Oak area. It is a Pediatric Doctors Office that is open until 11pm everday including weekends. They accept most insurances and cater to children. The only problem is they do not do xrays so I would not take a child you suspect of having a broken bone there. They are also very good at sending all your child's treatment information to your regular pediatrician. The other option is the Texas Med Clinics. They are open until 11pm every day. They do x-rays there and can handle most emergencies. I have taken both my children there for various reasons. The wait time is very reasonable and with insururance it is usually an urgent care co pay.

Hope this helps.

To me that is way to long. I would have raised hell if that was me. Especally if his fever was that high. I am sorry but that is horrilbe. I have never wiated that long or not even close. I waited about 4 hrs total and that was too long at Methodist Medical center. I always waited for them to tell me to go home. There is nothing I can do. Well fione but they did not check him over. They would look in his throat etc.

Finally I gave up on Metodist and I go to North East Baptist in Stone Oak. I did not wait more then 10min. Then the leval of cvare was better. The doctor checked him over and did test and found what the other doctors at Metodist did not evne care to find.

So try them!

I know that when our children get sick we want them to be seen as fast as possible. But the ER is first and foremost there to handle trauma and life and death emergencies. Just because it may seem that your child is the sickest in the waiting room, that doesn't mean that there wasn't an ambulance (or two, or more) that brought in patients who would have otherwise died had they not been taken are of right away. Everyone needs to learn a little patience and understand that ER's see patients by severity of illness rather than on a first-come/first-served basis.

I feel your frustration, I too went through this with my son. He had a kidney reconstructed and had complications from the surgery. He had to have emergency surgery which required a tube run from his kidney out his side and into a bag he had to wear on his back for a month. About 5 days after we got out of the hospital, my son (he was approx 14 mos at the time) was crying incessantly, which is very unusual for him, so we took him to the Methodist Children's Hospital. Now you would think a post-surgery baby crying his eyes out would have been a higher priority on the triage list, just as your son with a temp over 104! We were there for over 5 hours that night before I finally left! I was so mad I also cried in my car, and I promptly wrote a letter to the hospital the next day. My son is now 19 mos old, and I have yet to get a response from the hospital!!! I don't understand why these hospitals are so understaffed. I realize they want to give everyone fair treatment, but I also know there are nurses in triage who don't seem to understand the true meaning of what triage is! (I looked it up and defined it in my letter to the hospital, you see where THAT got me!!) LOL! I hope your son feels better! We found out later the baby had strep throat, and his throat was so raw he was just miserable. Pneumonia is very dangerous, and you should have been seen right away. I don't know what the hours are for the Texas Med Clinic, but my pediatrician was swamped last Thursday (because of Good Friday the next day) and I had to take my son to the TMC, they were great. The doctor was caring, and we only had to wait approx 2 hours, which was not too bad. My son had fun playing in the lobby with their peg boards, so it wasn't too bad.

I have had the same problem. My husband is a medical intern at University Hospital so I have to go to University Hospital for our emergency care. The wait there is sometimes 2 days. My pediatrician is never available when we really need her but she is the only one we can see with the "wonderful" insurance we get through my husbands job. What I have noticed at University Hospital is that most of the people (and this was confirmed by my husband and his co-workers)in the waiting room are people who are here illegally. I know they have a right to medical care but if they were here legally they could see other doctors instead of using the ER as there PCP. The only think I can suggest is if you think you can wait at all until the morning time to be seen try and wait it out at home. Plus, fevers always spike at night. It is a shame our kids have to wait to be seen.