“What If?” Erie hospitals had even a vague idea concerning how to operate a triage department?

I experienced a pretty serious run to the Hamot E.R. Thursday evening.  I tripped and fell head-first onto the concrete steps leading to my front door, leaving a 3 inch long laceration on my scull.  I could feel the scalp where it sliced away from the bone, and I was instantly awash in copious amounts of blood.

Any bleeding from the scalp is profuse.  I am on coumadin, a blood thinner, and any bleeding is exaggerated. 

My wife did immediate first aid, and we headed for the ER.  I informed the lady at check-in what had happened and told her I was on a blood thinner.  Three or four towels on my head were dripping blood and my face, neck and shirt were covered.  She looked and pleasantly taped a piece of gauze to my injury and told me to have a seat in the waiting room, which, by the way, was full of people of every ilk, only one who looked like sutures were in order.

After roughly 2 hours of sitting in the ER waiting room, I went back to check in and asked what was taking so long.  I was informed that I was in the “Express” group, and would be taken accordingly. OK.  Several minutes later the lady came over to me and asked if anyone had seen me.  Nope?  Shortly, I made it into the triage room, where vitals were taken and 1000 questions were asked, which I tried to answer, through a haze of pain and blood, for the triage nurse.

I was sent to the Radiology Department for a CT scan, very professionally handled, and had several vials of blood drawn for future reference.  I was frankly surprised she found any.

After sitting in the hallway for a significant period of time, I was finally taken to a treatment room.  From then on, I felt like I was in a real Hospital at last, with exemplary care from the RNs, Doctor-in-Training (Antonio) , and the ER physician who oversaw my treatment.  Nine well-placed staples later, the bleeding was pretty much stopped, and I was finally taken to a real room.  Note here:  I came to the ER at roughly 9 pm.  It is 4 am now.  Do the math.

Head injury, blood thinner, possible concussion, previous serious injury to cervical spine, profuse and prolonged bleeding.

Unacceptable length of time before treatment? I think so!!!!!!  Quality of the care I finally received after 4 hours of vastly  inferior triage procedure?  Excellent.

Understand, this is a personal opinion, from a hurting and bloody individual.  The Hamot Triage procedure sucks!

I’m sure there are a lot of stories out there.  Like to share them with the rest of us?