Labs have to be run in a rather expediant matter. Otherwise the sample is comprimised.
The ER's are notorisiously slow. Unless you have a serious injury your going to sit in the waiting room half the day and then lay on an exam table for about 5 more hours.
I once had a friend who stuck his hand through a window with serious cuts and he waited in the emergency room for 12 hours with his hand soaking in Betadine.
I put my arm through a window on a fall one time and I was seen pretty quick and sewed up quick because one of my cuts was very close to a major artery.
Go figure. I was not bleeding to death, but my cuts were bad. 44 stiches to put me back together, but I was in probably in less pain than others in the ER. Glad they worked on me quick, but I think about people who die in the ER waiting room because they failed to convince the triage nurse of the seriousness of their condition.
ER's suck. [Show/Hide Quoted Message](Quoting Message by Metallark from Thursday, June 04, 2009 8:26:29 PM)
Metallark wrote:
Yes! Also, when you are in the ER (for god knows how long) watch the docs blame lab for the long wait. I had a family member in the ER a few months back. I had some friends in the lab and they clued me in my wife's lab tests were all ok. Two hours later I listened to the doc state they were still waiting on the labs.
The rule of thumb is 95% of labs ordered in ER are back within 60 t0 90 minutes. 75% are between 45-60 minutes. Occasionally there are exceptions but for the most part that holds true. If they tell you otherwise they are feeding you a line of dung. We bust our asses to get those to ER so don't believe a word. It's the standard of care. Edited at: Thursday, June 04, 2009 8:30:28 PM
