Emergency Room One's Patients People Wait Doctor Treated

Emergency rooms are designed to provide "immediate" (very quick and responsive) treatment for "life-threatening" (risking death) injuries and illnesses, such as "heart attacks" (a condition where one's heart stops beating) and "severe" (very serious and dangerous) car accidents. People who go to the emergency room for less serious conditions fill the waiting rooms and increase the average "waiting time" (the amount of time someone must wait to see a doctor) for all patients.

Emergency room "admissions clerks" (people whose job is to decide who gets to see a doctor and when) have a lot of experience separating the real emergencies from less serious conditions. Sometimes patients become upset when they have to wait too long, but if they "blow up at" (shout and act angrily, losing control of one's emotions) the clerk, he or she might make them wait even longer, just out of "revenge" (wanting to do something bad or mean because one has been treated that way).

People who want to see a doctor more quickly "would be wise to" (should; would be smart to do something) go to the emergency room early in the morning, sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., when emergency rooms generally have fewer patients. Some people say that "vomiting" (throwing up; sending liquid from one's stomach out of one's body through one's mouth) can also "reduce" (decrease; minimize) the waiting time, because the admission clerks don't want to hear, see, or smell the vomit, they send those patients to see a doctor more quickly.

Patients who have conditions that are not life-threatening should "avoid" (not go to) the emergency room, instead going to an "urgent care clinic" (a medical facility that is open more hours than a regular doctor's office and patients do not need appointments).