‘Chair care’: Canadian patients examined in ER waiting rooms, closets

Even then, there often aren’t enough personnel to help. Parks said it’s not uncommon for doctors to see waiting room patients with lower, right-side abdominal pain and fever that looks suspicious for appendicitis. Blood work, a CT scan and antibiotics and pain meds can be ordered. “But, while the blood work and maybe CT scan gets done, there’s no one available to deliver the antibiotics or pain medication,” Parks said. Hours later, the patient is still in the waiting room, with no comfort or pain relief. “And you get the CT scan back and, indeed, it is appendicitis and they go straight to the operating room,” after having spent eight or nine hours in the waiting room.