Emergency Room Visit

While visiting my sister in March of 2003, we had the unfortunate need to go to the local emergency room to treat our son. Unfortunately, our experience was so bad that I wrote this letter to Assemblyman Goldwater of the 10th district in Nevada. He did reply to the message within a couple of days and expressed his condolences over our experience and his willingness to work on the problem.

Dear Assemblyman Goldwater,

My sister is a resident of the 10th district.

During a weekend visit to my sister in Las Vegas (Zip 89123) for our
mother's birthday, our four year old son experienced a moderate fever
and a red rash over his entire body. Our California pediatrician
diagnosed him as possibly having scarlet fever (Scarlatina) and
recommended we visit the local emergency room at Sunrise Children's
Hospital.

We arrived at the busy Pediatric Emergency Room at 8:50pm. After
completing the sign in sheet identifying his illness as possible scarlet
fever, we anxiously awaited an opportunity to see a doctor. More than
two hours later we were still waiting to be triaged and assigned a
priority level! At 11pm we were finally seen by the triage attentdant.

After explicitly telling the triage attendant our son had the classic
symptons of Scarlet Fever (Fever, sandpaper like rash, white tongue and
red throat), he dismissed our concerns. He argued that he had never seen
a case before, therefore our son must not have it. We were immediately
put on the bottom of the pile of pending cases.

FIVE (5) hours later, we were still waiting to be seen by the SINGLE ER
pediatrician and the TWO nurses. Low priority cases were being brought
into see the doctor at a rate of one (1) per hour. We were still 15th in
line at 4am. Many families left without seeing a doctor after waiting
8-10 hours.

During this time, we did not just sit idly. We called all of the
Emergency Rooms at nearby hospitals to assess their wait times. No ER
would commit to a wait time, but they all said in excess of 5-7 hours.

After talking with the triage attendant, we discovered that this has
been a growing problem for the past few months and seeing a doctor
within 16 hours of arrival would be considered good luck. After waiting
7 hours, he thought we would only wait 5-7 hours more and may be home by
noon (15 hours after arrival).

We decided not to wait, and returned to California to be seen by our
Pediatrictian as soon as possible. Our pediatrician was able to
positively diagnose Scarlet fever and prescribe a treatment in less than
a 10 minute office visit.

Thank you for your time,

Keith Stark