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This is the Life: Closer look at emergency room waiting game

System works remarkably well, especially when we need it most, says Advance publisher Lorne Eckersley...
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Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.

It’s easy to sympathize with the plight of the letter to the editor writer a few weeks ago who spent long hours in emergency at Creston Valley Hospital just to get a prescription renewal. It wasn’t just the wait that upset her — no one seemed willing to keep her informed about how long the wait would be, or why she wasn’t seen more quickly.

When Mayor Ron Toyota and I discussed the letter, I said the frustration undoubtedly started because she had to attend the emergency room for a non-emergency issue. It meant that she would not be seen according to the order of patients who arrived because emergency patients get first priority, as they should in emergency. And it isn’t always easy for an observer to know exactly who is in need of emergency care. Not every emergency involves blood or obvious symptoms.

And I said as well that I could understand why a nurse or staff member might not have made it a priority to check back with the letter writer. No one, I said, likes to go up to someone and tell them that they have no helpful information for them. Facing a patient without having helpful information isn’t likely to be satisfying and is unlikely to get a positive response.

I have been in similar situations. A dozen years ago I put my hand into a table saw blade. After emergency surgery, which entailed a flight to Calgary, I made seven more trips to the Foothills Medical Centre as the wonderful Dr. Don MacPhalen performed more surgeries in an effort to restore as much use to my hand as possible. Most of those procedures were done in the minor surgery unit, where I had the original surgery done. It is a part of the hospital’s emergency service and, as such, I could not be scheduled for a specific time. Instead, I was instructed to arrive in the morning. I would check in with admissions and then take a seat in the unit’s waiting area. My own surgery would take place when Dr. MacPhalen had a window of opportunity when no emergencies were demanding his time.

The experience of waiting for the surgeon was never the same twice. Sometimes a nurse would regularly emerge through the minor surgery door to inform me that the doctor was with an emergency patient and my wait would be extended. On one long day I waited six or more hours with no information at all. I simply had to trust that they had not forgotten that I was there. In all cases I was eventually escorted to a room, where the amazing surgeon (he was actually a pediatric surgeon who specialized in working on kids’ hands) would conduct another procedure. I have never forgotten the day he told me that I was considered to be “a gold standard patient”. The reason? I always did what I was instructed to do pre- and post-surgery and I never, not once, put my own needs above others. When nurses did come to update me on the waiting situation, often with an apology, I simply replied that they needn’t worry. I was not an emergency and did not expect to have priority over those who were. I had, after all, once been an emergency patient and I remember the relief I felt when I was wheeled into the emergency registration area and a young and fit looking man carrying a cup of takeout coffee walked in from outside. He looked around, then walked over and asked if I was from Creston. Yes, I said. “I’m Dr. MacPhalen and I’ll be looking after you. We’ll get you in as quickly as possible.”

Prior to that hand injury, I had never spent a night in a hospital and I had attended our hospital as an emergency patient twice. Once I had a tiny piece of metal in my eye and another time I was suffering from a kidney stone (which passed a short time after I arrived). Never having been without a family doctor, I have never had to attend the emergency in Creston for a minor issue simply because it was my only option.

I hope the letter written by Mayor Toyota has helped to explain why it’s OK to attend the hospital emergency room for something like a prescription renewal. And I hope the hospital reminds its staff that customer service is important, even when it is impossible to tell a patient how long a wait is in store. Our system works remarkably well, especially when we need it most.

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.