“No policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people waiting to be seen are still alive"

[kpete]

The emergency room worker was on duty at the time. He believes the 30 year-old Verrier may have been dead for several hours before being discovered by a security guard.

"There's no policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people waiting to be seen are still there or still alive," said the ER worker.

John Verrier had struggled with drug addiction and had been to St Barnabas before but his family says he had been clean for months and living at home. He had gone to the ER complaining about a rash, his vitals were checked and he was told to wait until his name was called. It was 10 at night. A security guard found him at 6:40 A-M, dead in a waiting room chair:

"No one should sit in the waiting room that long. I'm sorry, name calling over the loud speaker proves nothing, nothing," said Susan Verrier, the John's mother.

MORE:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=9406237
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/28/stuck-in-the-emergency-room-you-may-be-sitting-next-to-a-dead-man/

[LiberalEsto]

1. I once sat in a hospital ER waiting room for 9 hours with a baby and a toddler

and nobody to call for help with the kids. The older daughter had a badly infected splinter deep in a toe and the HMO doctor said she couldn't take it out in the office.

It was hard trying to amuse and distract two very little kids, one of them in pain, for that amount of time.

But what happened with this poor young man is an absolute scandal.

[Warpy]

3. Blame short staffing

and nowhere is it more dangerously short than in an ER. If you're really lucky, some old dragon from accounting will be sent to interview you for your ability to pay, meaning you'll get checked on at least once while they deal with back to back heart attacks and overdoses and car crash victims.

MBAs taking over hospitals and trying to run them like big box stores is the problem. You can stock shelves and run a checkout with a skeleton crew. People are more complex. They take more time and inadequate staffing doesn't allow it.

I'm wondering what the autopsy is going to show. If it was bacterial meningitis, they're going to be in really big trouble.

[Phentex]

2. It's unreal...

getting no response to calling a name could mean the person went to the restroom, left or....died. It's shameful to NOT have a policy of checking to see who or what is still in the waiting room!

[Niceguy1]

4. when I worked in the era

We never checked. Never had anyone die, either

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. I've been ignored in an ER before.

I was sitting in a wheelchair barfing my guts out due to a sinus infection/bronchitis and was dehydrated. They were not busy. My husband had to go in the back hall to find a couple of nurses standing around yacking to tell them I needed help after three hours. There were patients who came in after me who were visibly distressed at the sound of my barfing. I sound like I'm dying when that happens. They never put me in a room or examined me.

After four hours I got my husband to take me to a different hospital, where they saw me and treated me immediately. I told them what they needed to do--antibiotic shots, IV fluids, and anti-emetics. They even gave me a shot of Demerol so I would sleep for a while and my guts could rest.

They ignored me at the first hospital because I did not have insurance.
These were both suburban hospitals.

Our healthcare system sucks.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. kick