When is the ER the slowest?

[shaggybill]

Hi gang, it's your friendly neighbourhood noobie here to ask y'all some more questions. Specifically, when is the ER the slowest in terms of patients? I'd like to volunteer in the ER (for several reasons, this being just one) during the slowest shifts so I can pester the charge nurse about getting me a job as an ER Tech once I have my EMT certificate (at the end of October) without interrupting her work.

Actually, I'm just going to be real friendly and very helpful and mention how I'd like to have more responsibilities and hey! I'm going to be an EMT next month. Have any job openings for me in here? *nudge nudge*

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[deleted87716]

Specifically, when is the ER the slowest in terms of patients?

Try any Saturday night, especially during a full moon. When you arrive, be sure to comment loudly to anyone around about how QUIET it is. That'll clinch it.

 

[GeneralVeers]

Try any Saturday night, especially during a full moon. When you arrive, be sure to comment loudly to anyone around about how QUIET it is. That'll clinch it.

You forgot the part about ducking as you say it, to avoid the blunt objects hurled at you by nurses.

 

[Seaglass]

Monday night with 20 people in the waiting room and 20 people waiting for beds upstairs.

 

[MossPoh]

When I was shadowing the quietest times were somewhat random but there seemed to be a bit of a wave around the time I'd consider just after breakfast that'd go through till about 2 p.m. and then a slight pause and then more people would come in for their pain killers right after dinner.

 

[deleted109597]

It is quietest when you aren't there. Doesn't matter who you are. That's just how it works.

 

[shaggybill]

Yeah...after I hit Submit I realized it was a pretty dumb question. I dont guess anyone can really say when the ER is going to be slow.

Seaglass, did you go to med school at Wake?

 

[Shodddy18]

Its the quietest when there are only a few patients there silly!

 

[GeneralVeers]

At a county hospital I never can predict. Seems the neighborhood crack addicts don't have routine sleep, fight, overdose schedules, so it can be quiet or crazy at any time.

When I worked in a nice community hospital Sundays were great. I'd sit and drink coffee and read the paper.....until 10 AM. It seems that towards the end of church the old people would start passing out or getting chest pain.

There was always a second rush at noon, as church finished, and people got bored and decided to come to the ER.

 

[southerndoc]

Our slowest times seem to be from 3am-9am. Anytime other than that and it's a zoo.

 

[Apollyon]

There was always a second rush at noon, as church finished, and people got bored and decided to come to the ER.

When I volunteered in college, that's what I always said - on Sunday, some people go to King's Dominion or Carowinds, and others watch football or NASCAR, and the rest come to the ED for kicks.

 

[mlw03]

Our slowest times seem to be from 3am-9am. Anytime other than that and it's a zoo.

during my limited experience as a student I would agree that the early morning hours have been the slowest. by 3-4 am it seems like we'd finally clear out the waiting room, and then it's only a trickle until mid-morning. so we use those early morning hours to practice starting IVs on each other!!

 

[Pose]

At my community ED, it's slowest from 3am-11am. It's also fairly slow on Sunday.

 

[DrQuinn]

We are on track to see about 78k a year (adults only), our slowest times are probably 4a-7a... the patients we do see around then have been waiting for several hours with their tooth pain, rash, and sore throat. You can knock those patients out pretty quickly which makes for a nice time.

Q

 

[doctawife]

We are on track to see about 78k a year (adults only), our slowest times are probably 4a-7a... the patients we do see around then have been waiting for several hours with their tooth pain, rash, and sore throat. You can knock those patients out pretty quickly which makes for a nice time.

Q

At our children's EC, we have pretty much the same pattern. Only sometimes the parents get fed up 'round about 5am and leave our waiting room to go to the waiting room of their pedi. Or they just stick around to scream at us. The physician in chief of the hospital always rolls around at about 6:30a, so sometimes he gets to see.

Which is just lovely.

Our wait times are so bad that JAHCO has made us redo our EC like three times in four years. We're like the freeway system; build it and they will come.

 

[Pose]

78k...

I work (as a tech) for an ED that sees roughly 45-50k, I think. It must be hell, or staffed very well.

 

[lucky_deadman]

78k...

I work (as a tech) for an ED that sees roughly 45-50k, I think. It must be hell, or staffed very well.

Probably a lot of both.

 

[EctopicFetus]

LAC+USC sees like 220K and Cook County like 135K... Nuts..

 

[totalbodypain]

185 K here....Mostly hell. If we have staff they have been on vacation since I started....

 

[roja]

We see about 120K at our level one. It is impossible to predict when it will be 'quiet' but easier to determine when it is going to be a zoo (mondays are horrid and saturday night is usually a mess as well)

At our level 2 hospital, we see about 65K (we consider it our slow hospital) during the week it pretty consistantly is slow between 2-3a and 6am. However, there are times when it goes bonkers there as wekll.