A CEO at a New England hospital stated a number of years ago that “85% of the trips to the Emergency Room really weren’t emergencies.” I’m not sure whether he was talking about his specific hospital or some sort of regional average, though...
I'm guessing he's talking regional average. Most people in the ER are not there because of emergencies, most of them can't speak English. The average ER wait is upwards of 10 hours, yeah I said 10 hours, that equates to a full days work plus overtime. My son had a concussion many years ago, we sat there for over an hour before he was registered to be seen and then another 9 hours before he was actually seen. We arrived at 1pm - one woman had been there for hours suffering from symptoms that resembled a heart attack, she kept calling for a nurse and demanding to see a doctor, they ignored her. Finally she started sweating profusely, struggling to breathe, grabbing her arm then her chest, look of terror on her face, several of us rushed over to the registration desk demanding someone see this woman - the nurses blew us off, finally someone went past the nurse into the exam rooms and found a doctor, meanwhile the woman was on the bench not breathing while another patient and hospital security was giving her CPR. A nurse strolled over with a look of disgust on her face, not because no one had bothered to tend to this woman but because she thought the woman was faking. They put her in a wheelchair and took her away. We found out later that the woman was left on a gurny in a hallway and had passed away.
I work in a hospital ER - I would agree with that figure of 85% of ER visits not being actual emergencies.
I also really like that RN’s suggestion of having a triage nurse at the door to filter out the non-emergents.