Experiences in the Emergency Room

I have worked as a customer support specialist in the emergency department for five years and have witnessed many outpatient procedures. Most people might think that an emergency department mainly deals with ambulances bringing patients in, but most of the time, we treat patients who have driven themselves to the hospital. Patients who experience outpatient care have come in to the hospital for minor check ups, headaches, fevers, cuts, etc. There have been times where the waiting room is packed full, and they have to wait because we are understaffed. I feel this is the biggest problem with our health care system today. In the hospital that I work at, there are a total of 12 rooms in the emergency department but only one doctor working. The number of patients coming into the emergency department can be very unpredictable, and when we are understaffed is when we run into the most problems. I have seen people wait for hours just to be checked in, and I feel that if more people were working, this wouldn't be such a problem. Having more workers would provide a shorter waiting time, as well as more patient interaction with healthcare providers. Also, patients wouldn't feel as though they are being hurried out and may feel more comfortable opening up to the nurses/doctors about their concerns.

Health Care Experience

I am posting this on behalf of my dad, who wrote this as a patient...

I've been a businessman for more than 20 years in manufacturing environment. In my opinion, the single most examine important element to maintaining a successful businesses is the ability to minimize waste and maximize efficiency in every operation of the business. To varying degrees, the health care industry has been very slow to adapt "lean manufacturing" principles in the products and services they offer. The textbook definition of "lean" simply means the elimination of waste in the execution of a process, where waste represents any action / time that is not directly conducted in the process of delivering the product or service.

As I use the healthcare system, I immediately notice the inefficiency of the process. Starting at patient check-in and carry it through to patient discharge, it seems very few of the services performed have any efficiency built in. Why? Possibly because our system does not have a natural competitive marketplace. If you are fortunate enough to have health care, probably you are limited to a specific plan (provider, location, etc) and cannot "shop" for a better deal. So the costs for services have little emphasis placed on them, as the provider can set their price for services high enough to cover the waste. Secondly, particularly in the case of urgent care, most people (with health coverage) do not care about costs; they simply want treatment. In summary, it is mostly an unmanaged system of inefficiency, with little incentive to change.