This is NOT McDonald's...

...and it's not Starbucks either... 

If you want to be served in the order in which you arrived, please do not go to an Emergency Room.  Please go, instead, to McDonald's or Starbucks.

...Surprisingly enough, you will sit in the Waiting Room for some time while we take care of the 65 year old lady that came in after you clutching her chest having a heart attack...

...Your child WILL wait a few minutes while we resuscitate the 9 year old girl that was found floating in the pool...  And your kid with the hockey puck injury to his leg doesn't trump the patient we're doing chest compressions on---- even if you did get to the ER first...

...No, Ma'am, you probably DON'T really wish that you're husband needed CPR, too, so that he would get some attention...  He's been coughing for 2 weeks and you decided to bring him in Sunday night at 10:00pm.  I think he can wait 30 more minutes while we try to save someone's life.  

There is a national standard for triage in the Emergency Department that puts patients in one of five categories... Imminent, Emergent, Urgent, Semi-Ugent, and Non-Urgent.  Imminent and Emergent patients are brought into the ER immediately upon arrival and placed in a bed.  Imminent patients require full immediate resources or the patient will die within minutes, or they are already dead and we need to try to bring them back to life.  Emergent patients are likely to deteriorate rapidly to Imminent status if there is no immediate intervention.  Urgent patients are sick, but not likely to die in the near future and we have time to do testing to sort out what is wrong with the patient.  Semi-Urgent and Non-Urgent patients should have waited to see their doctor in the morning or should have gone to a clinic.

The vast majority of patients seen in Emergency Rooms are semi-urgent and non-urgent; these patients usually get discharged from the ER and go home...  The patients that really need to be in the ER are the Urgent, Emergent, and Imminent patients.  The Emergent and Imminent patients are the ones that should have come to the ER long before they did.

So, you don't get a bed and get to be seen by a doctor just because you got here first.  We take care of the sickest patients first.  

We also know that you may feel like you're sicker than someone else we bring back before you, but we are pretty good at what we do.  And, yes, we are qualified to make the decision of who is sicker and who we need to take care of first...  When you've had years of nursing education and training, and several years of nursing experience, then you, too, can sit at the triage desk and make these decisions, too...  

In the mean time,  please have a seat.  We'll call you when a bed is available...