Saw A Woman Die Waiting To Be Seen At UMASS ER Last Night

Submitted by incandesantlite t3_yxeyix in WorcesterMA

I had to bring a family member to the ER at UMASS University on Lake Ave yesterday. The waiting room was packed. At one point I counted fifty patients waiting in the waiting room between adults and pediatrics. During the blur of activity over hours of waiting, all of a sudden I hear a loud beeping noise. It was the alarm from the bathroom you pull in case of emergency. A nurse kid of just started walking towards the restroom until a woman came out of the restroom frantically yelling for help. Right after this I heard someone yell "CODE" and over a dozen people went running into the bathroom. A couple mins later they wheeled an elderly woman out of the bathroom in a wheelchair, apparently lifeless, through the waiting room and out back.

I do not know what happened after that but two hours later the same woman who yelled for help was hysterically crying in the waiting room surrounded by, who I assume were family members or friends. I do not know how long the elderly woman was there waiting or why she was there. I know people were waiting over 12+ hours to be seen and the place was packed. People are dying because our healthcare system is fucked in this country. I wasn't going to post this but I couldn't help but think about the woman all morning at work and how upset I would be if that was my family member. I could see myself as the hysterical woman trying to explain to her family what just happened.

I don't plan on replying to any posts as I just wanted to post this as kind of a cathartic exercise. I don't really want to talk about it any further. I just wanted someone to know about that woman. I can't help but wonder what her life was like and how devastated her family must be. Just a reminder to hug the people you love a little tighter sometimes.

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itstheoneontheleft t1_iwpqc76 wrote

I would like to chime in as someone who rotates between the UMass ERs. One of the smaller ERs associated with UMass had 35 boarders in a 38 bed ER. What that means is, there were 35 people waiting for beds either upstairs in the main hospital or in another facility. Essentially, 35 / 38 beds just taking up space. We had enough nurses to be taking care of 30 people tops. This is an issue amongst all UMass ERs. If you are not literally about to die you will be waiting for hours (I know it often feels as if you are gonna die, that’s why you’re in the ER. The triage nurse is an expert at sorting out sick / not sick and the doctors are monitoring the labs / vitals of people in the waiting room. If you’re waiting it’s a good thing). This is what happens when administration does not take the steps necessary to provide us with the resources to function at 100%. They are causing our community to suffer as a result. You’re anger should be directed at the C suite who is putting profits over patient care. Please, PLEASE be patient with all staff at the ER. We are not making you wait out of malice. Our hearts hurt when we see an 80 year old patient with a broken leg sitting in our waiting room for 8 hours. I promise we are all trying our best. If the triage nurse snaps at you for asking about the wait 3 times, please remember how overworked they are, how often they are berated by patients and families, how they have been working in a toxic stressful understaffed under resourced job for the past 3 years. We’re not trying to be rude, we’re not ok with people being harmed by the wait. We’re burned out and frustrated. Please, PLEASE try to be patient and empathetic. We’re trying our best 😔

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yuxngdogmom t1_iwrczs0 wrote

EMT here. A thousand percent this. We’re slammed constantly and overworked which could be mitigated by simply hiring more EMTs and paramedics and putting more ambulances in service, but the healthcare system wants to make money so they won’t do it. Hell, they’re too cheap to even pay us what we deserve. This problem is also exacerbated by the rampant 911 abuse from entitled people who think the ambulance is their golden ticket past triage. At least once a week I see a news headline about obscenely long ambulance response times, sometimes to the point that people have no choice but to drive their critically ill or injured loved one to the hospital themselves because they can’t wait any longer. It makes my stomach turn every time I see that. I hate that critical patients are having to wait that long for an ambulance but there’s not anything I can do about it as the EMT, and that is what is truly gut wrenching about it. I simply go when dispatched and try to get there as quickly as is safe for me and other drivers if it’s a code 3. I never have any idea how much time passed between the caller dialing 911 and the tones going off. I love my job but this bullshit makes me feel physically sick.

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JohnnyGoldwink t1_iwqfzyq wrote

The part about prioritizing profits over staff and customers — i’m not a nurse but this sounds a lot like my job/work environment 😒 I get it.

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[deleted] t1_iwqkj76 wrote

[deleted]

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JohnnyGoldwink t1_iwqlcb7 wrote

100% — we are failing miserably. Two of my close friends are nurses. The stress they experience at work sounds awful. I work in human services which is also insanely under-staffed, over-worked & under-paid. Been this way since the start of COVID & it’s not getting any better. I don’t even know what to think about it at this point. I’m just burnt out.

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bemest t1_iwqq9kd wrote

Could it be just not enough nurses to fill the demand? The bulk of the boomers have retired with less population to fill in. We’ve seen restaurants closing here weekly because they can’t get staff or supplies. I’m not defending the management, this should not be a surprise. Our system is not perfect and the only advantage of others is it’s paid through your tax dollars, but service isn’t necessarily better and in many cases worse. Imagine the RMV for healthcare.

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Sufficient-Voice-210 t1_iwrhgve wrote

EMS is having the same issue. If EMT’s and Paramedics were paid fairly you wouldn’t have an issue staffing

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baldymcbaldyface t1_iwredc1 wrote

Thank you for doing what you do. You might not hear it often but you are appreciated by many.

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FluorescentSedation t1_iwrwu6i wrote

This is why I peaced out of UMass, and healthcare, recently. This person speaks the truth.

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DrThrowaway4444 t1_iwsliad wrote

While the C-Suite certainly has some blame in this situation, I don't think it's as much as you're attributing to them. The main issues I see are limited staffing and lack of appropriate and timely follow up in PCP offices. I would estimate 50% or more of the patients going to the ED should be going to their primary care doctor. But they either don't have one because it's so hard to get an appointment, or they were given an appointment several weeks in the future and the patient decided to go to the ED instead.

A hospital can't just increase capacity overnight, it's a multi-year long process. With the influx of patients from St Vincent's, it's been a nightmare.

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FalsePattern6258 t1_iwt1hrs wrote

Agreed. I'm pretty sure this is a nationwide thing. Shortage of PCPs too. Shortage of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, most healthcare professionals. Yet the government decided that Medicare reimbursement for hospitals should be further decreased (it was already low compared to private insurances), meaning hospitals like UMass that get a lot of patients on Medicare and Medicaid get even less funding. As a safety net hospital, it's already difficult to stay afloat financially but I think this huge mess goes all the way up to our government. At its core, our healthcare system is so messed up. We have an aging population and have not figured out how to solve the healthcare worker shortage, and the current healthcare workers are becoming stretched so thin and burned out and patients are dying because of it.

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Neyabenz t1_iwt86mk wrote

Or they have inadequate insurance and try to tough it out. Because capitalism.

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SufficientTicket t1_iwsyyyt wrote

And yet the voters believed the hospitals and administrators and we all voted not to make staffing standards. Awful.

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Wooden-Letter7199 t1_iwr148i wrote

I very much empathize with your reply, but isn’t UMass technically a non-profit?

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legalpretzel t1_iwoh8rv wrote

So, UMass Pediatrics ER is being used to house pediatrics patients because they are over capacity due to the ridiculously high need for inpatient pediatric beds right now with RSV and other illnesses running rampant in kids (if you have kids get their flu shots/Covid boosters if you haven’t already). UMass only has 30 inpatient pediatric beds (bc reimbursement rates are lower for kids so why would central MA have more, amirite?) and they’re at 115% currently. Because the overflow is bedding in the pediatric ER, it is closed to new patients, which means kids have to use the regular ER.

The adult ER is definitely not a great place for any child given that it’s the only Trauma 1 ER in all of central MA and that often means long waits due to triaging really serious emergencies. Kids don’t do patience and when they are in pain they definitely don’t do long waits, so it absolutely puts a ton of added pressure on the ER staff to manage the kids + the adults.

It’s basically a shit show.

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massguy66 t1_iwpxe1o wrote

just to add here. my mother was an ER nurse for decades a few towns over. she said there is a staggering amount of people that goto to the ER for the smallest thing and definitely do not need to be there.

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id0ntwantyourlife t1_iwq1foa wrote

Yup, this is honestly probably the biggest cause of delays at the ER. Instead of just calling a physician or urgent care first, people go to the ER for everything (and I get that vibe from reading comments here too). If you are actually having an emergency, no ER will make someone wait for hours on end.

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Sloth_are_great t1_iwrd2ty wrote

Urgent cares are notoriously awful. They have also been sending people to the ER for things they used to be able to treat themselves. Also many PCPs won’t be able to see patients urgently or on the weekends. It’s all messed up.

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FalsePattern6258 t1_iwt1nz1 wrote

I really like the idea of an urgent care but I agree, I have seen and heard of some abysmal medical care taking place at urgent cares that I've lost all trust in them.

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j_allosaurus t1_iws9vvz wrote

Every time I’ve been to an urgent care lately they’ve sent me to the ER and basically yelled at me for coming in.

I went in because my asthma was worse than usual and I needed stronger meds for it, but it wasn’t actually a full-blown attack. I tried to make an appointment with my PCP’s office and they said they had no available appointments for six weeks and to go to urgent care. Urgent care said “they can’t treat asthma” and to go to the ER. I ended up arguing with them and they finally gave me the meds.

Our health care system is crazy overburdened and broken and it’s all exacerbating that. People end up in the ER for little things for so many reasons but most of them are not there because they’re overreacting. Not saying that’s what you’re saying, just some context.

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ins0mniac_ t1_iwoe1xq wrote

But .. but… the wait times in Canada and their socialism healthcare!!!

Seriously though, that is awful.

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StoneSkipper22 t1_iwq12ir wrote

Some parts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland do not have ER services at all due to staff shortages post-covid. The wait to get assigned to a primary care doctor is also over two years. It’s incredibly, scary level tough in Canada right now. Not defending our system over theirs (at all), but healthcare is on the brink of collapse in many places.

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eburton555 t1_iwqnoz5 wrote

It’s not much better here. I have healthcare through Partners and I’m basically giving up on getting a PCP even though I’ve got some things I need checked out.

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About_Yeah_High t1_iwoi9hr wrote

Sorry you had to experience that, it’s bad enough just having to go there, let alone see that. A month ago I went there bc I had symptoms that suggested a detached retina. Arrived about 8:45 pm, got triaged, then waited…and waited…and waited…until 6:30 am when I left and went into Mass Eye and Ear in Boston Got checked out, told I was ok, just a minor issue. In and out in 2-1/2 hours after waiting ~45 minutes, seeing a nurse, a more technical specialist, then a doctor who gave me the most thorough eye exam I’ve ever had. They need to remove “emergency” from the sign at Lake Ave.

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Frosty_Delay_8466 t1_iwpikzo wrote

Glad everything worked out for you. The ONLY place to go with an eye problem is Mass Eye and Ear. You literally risk blindness elsewhere.

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hawilder t1_iwstta9 wrote

Is that in Worcester ?

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Frosty_Delay_8466 t1_iwu4pdn wrote

Mass Eye and Ear is in Boston on Fruit Street, right next to MGH. 24/7 emergency room, valet parking (recommend). They do have a satellite office in the Longwood area for surgeries and follow ups, but the main one is on Fruit Street.

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hawilder t1_iwx7mrs wrote

Damn, that’s definitely not “in network”

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idkwhatimdoing25 t1_iwrnhtc wrote

For an eye related emergency its 100% worth the extra drive to Boston to go to Mass Eye & Ear. The UMASS system has some amazing ophthalmologists but they aren't emergency specialists and are actually located at the Hahnemann campus, not Lake Ave where the big ER is so they aren't even on site.

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aKaake t1_iwpbsv6 wrote

I had to go to the UMass ER a few weeks ago for what I thought was a blood clot. My husband and I were going to go to Urgent Care instead, but it was 630 am and URGENT care didn't open until 830. Just like the "emergency" room is allowing people to die from long waits, "urgent" care isn't urgent either, it's convenient for them.

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D_is_for_Doomsayer t1_iwppxhr wrote

Take care of yourself, OP. That vicarious trauma will creep up on you. Don't talk about it with us, but do talk about it with someone, yeah?

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its-a-crisis t1_iwpie5i wrote

Yes. Husband waited 10 hours to be seen for heart attack symptoms the week after Christmas last year.

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KadenKraw t1_iwqqe9c wrote

My friend in Finland waited 9 hours last week. Long waits are not unique to America.

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BagofFriddos t1_iwqnc44 wrote

Am an EMT that's worked in the Worcester County area for years...Unfortunately with the staffing issues and high patient counts, we end up "holding the wall" basically every transport. Had a possible STEMI patient and still ended up holding the wall. Used to work at St. Vs and UMASS but unfortunately like I said, such a staffing shortage that it affects patient treatment and turn around time. Sorry you had to experience that.

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jesseMc420 t1_iwr0zdo wrote

One big problem here as well that does not get talked about enough UMass has made record profits over the last 10 years. Look how much jmthe Lake Ave location has grown. Yet the quality of care is down. Profits over lives.

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jdmd791 t1_iwr7xbr wrote

A lot of that growth you see has been at the medical school which although affiliated with the hospital is a separate entity.

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FalsePattern6258 t1_iwt2745 wrote

The Lake Ave location is growing also in order to better accommodate the overload on UMass right now. We physically need more space for the overload of patients who are everywhere in hallways in the ED and on regular floors.

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jesseMc420 t1_iwuetuu wrote

Funny because everytime I have had to be there I have only had a room once instead of a bed in the hallway. Having that many patients always suffering in a bed in a hallway is pretty ridiculous considering how much money they make in profits. The nurses have the burden of trying to hold that place together. My mom worked in the er there for 10 years. The stories I heard were absolutely insane. That hospital specifically needs to put some more money into helping the nurses build staffing and so many issues I'm just not going g to bring up here.

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FalsePattern6258 t1_ix6dbex wrote

I can't say how much UMass makes in profit, but I would honestly be surprised if it's a lot given it's a safety net hospital that gets a lot of uninsured/medicare/medicaid patients unlike some of the better-to-do hospitals in Boston. I think we're fortunately a state hospital, so we probably get lots of specific funds allocated only to stuff like research buildings, and to help make up for the loss of profit that safety net hospitals face.

I totally agree that it's crazy how many hallway beds there are. Not only are they in the ED, even on the regular floors we're having a few hallway beds. It's insane and the lack of staffing is just plain crazy. Healthcare and it's poor staff deserve so much more funding. We work on a shortage everyday - that is the norm - and we all put our hearts into it. I want to so badly fight for more funding for hospitals, but I don't even know where or how to even start. It's demoralizing though when you hear about how Medicare has cut its pay towards hospitals even further, which is absolutely nuts, especially for safety net hospitals like us who are already stretched way too thin... I wonder if the public knows how many hospitals are on the brink of collapse, because I think we need to band together and fight for some sort of change from our politicians.

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jesseMc420 t1_ix89php wrote

UMass has had RECORD PROFITS FOR THE PAST 4 YEARS. This is just a fact. There are not too many uninsured people in MA. In other states yes but Massachusetts has created the structure for the countries insurance structure or at least what it could be with better federal and state funding. It's far from good but our state has very few uninsured Patients in the hospital.

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Dinglehoppering t1_iwrh3iu wrote

Its a horrible state of affairs. I entirely recognize its no ones fault there at the ER. But it is truly hell.

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4runnr t1_iwpdofk wrote

Say what you want about St. Vs but I’ve never had to wait for more than an hour at the ER. 5 hours at umass every time.

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JoshSidious t1_iwsiz89 wrote

Every ER is fucked. I work in BWH's ER and we constantly have 8-10 hour waits. ER is full of admitted patients waiting for beds on regular units. Basically seeing 90% of new patients in hallway beds. It would help a LOT if lower income individuals had better access to Healthcare. And idk what's up with young people coming in with common colds. 20-30% of my patients have no business tying up ER resources.

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draken2019 t1_iwslgea wrote

Yes.

There's a lot of people turning up in the ER because they can't get the care they need from their doctor or urgent care. ER is 100% covered by Mass Health regardless of what you get done there.

I've had several times where a condition doesn't get covered in urgent care and they send me over to the ER for tests that I can't get covered by insurance any other way.

We need to get insurance out of the equation.

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vickomls t1_iwpem4a wrote

I had Covid in May and went in with shortness of breath and low O2. Tbh I should’ve gone to Memorial, but didn’t want to wait there just to be told to go to Lake Ave. I got triaged and waited in the waiting room for 12 hours before I left and went to the Covid clinic at Hannheman. I think they took my vitals like twice in those 12 hours.

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Todayismyday98 t1_iwq68vd wrote

My brother is a type one diabetic with guillemot barre. We once waited for 8 hours while he was in DKA. He lost one toe and two meta tarsals. It’s really devastating how they test people

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RedRose_Belmont t1_iwqtq5r wrote

It’s not only the US. Look at the wait in ERs in Canada. People just leave after a few hours

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Wooden-Letter7199 t1_iwr1rwf wrote

This is true. I very read a horrifying post about the many hours long wait at a pediatric ER in Paris, France.

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Eric_Fapton t1_iws0k7s wrote

This is exactly why healthcare should not be a business.

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rrsafety t1_iwpk860 wrote

I have found the Clinton Hospital ER to have short waits.

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bschav1 t1_iwpqzf1 wrote

Clinton’s ER can’t handle anything serious. I used to work for the ambulance company that was contracted to transfer out of Clinton. If any even remotely seriously ill person comes in, they immediately send them out to UMass, Leominster, Marlboro or Boston. During COVID they were sending people as far as Hartford. It’s a glorified band-aid station and part of the reason UMass is always so packed. Leominster and Marlboro can handle anything short of high level trauma and MI/CVA that may require a catheter or interventional radiology. I once picked up a transfer from Clinton for an elderly woman who fell. X-ray showed no fracture, patient was stable and only complaining of minor pain to left hip. When asked the reason for the transfer, the Dr stated “It’s a trauma. We don’t do that here.” We took the lady to UMass. She was Xrayed again, which was negative again. They gave her an Rx for pain and transferred her back to her facility in Clinton.

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rrsafety t1_iwq9hpo wrote

But if they transfer you from Clinton ER in an ambulance to UMass, you don't wait, you get seen immediately.

I had a gallbladder attack about ten years ago. Walked right in, they drugged me up and my surgery was the next morning. The nurses there were the best I ever had. The place was kind and quiet.

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foxcmomma t1_iwsbpuz wrote

That’s not really true though. Umass has to have an accepting doc who has somewhere Tom put you. It looks like the sending facility is just dragging their feet, but it can take hours to get a spot to send you. I am an ER nurse and it regularly takes me 8-12 hours for a transfer spot to open up. They can’t accept transfers over people already waiting there, either.

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cowboyfromhell77 t1_iwpuyel wrote

waited with my dad for 3 hours last year for heart attack like symptoms , the people ahead of us said they were there for 15 plus hours and counting ,so we left. they blamed covid.What’s the excuse now. It’s a fkn shit show and should fail some kind of inspection, shouldn’t be able to say your an emergency room when you can’t help emergencies

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eburton555 t1_iwqnw32 wrote

This answe isn’t gonna make you happy but staff shortages are killing the hospitals. Why do you think those exist?

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AHamBone10 t1_iwt018n wrote

Obviously this is not the case for everyone but people abuse the ER when it’s cold.

Also, since people can’t afford doctors. They go to the ER instead.

Also, people abuse the ER for profit. I work in insurance so many people go to the ER for accidents with no damage; just to profit from “pain & suffering”

Our healthcare workers do a great job. Nothing but respect to anyone in that field.

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Ben_On_Air t1_ixhtghk wrote

Dr. Michael Hirsh, folks may know him as the medical information lead for the City during the pandemic, has been telling us for weeks now about how the hospitals are being overrun by a combination of RSV, COVID, the Flu, deferred health care during COVID coming to the fore, and all the regular ER and hospital visits on top. It's happening all across New England by the way, but we're seeing it here in Worcester in a big way. It's scary as hell. Best advice he gave is no matter how long it takes to be seen, don't leave if you can stay, that way if something really bad happens at least you'll be in a hospital. I thought that was good advice. (Also get all of your vaccinations and take those proactive steps to stay out of the hospital in the first place).

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kftnyc t1_iwx9e5a wrote

Eliminating the useless vaccine mandates would help the staffing situation a bit.

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Ovaltene17 t1_iwpvd0z wrote

UMass Medical is a terrible organization top to bottom, thru and thru.

I went to the UMass ER one evening. In the two hours I waited there was a fight and then there was also what I could only describe as a drug induced psychotic breakdown with another person there. I didn't feel safe and I left, ending up at Milford Hospital where I was seen within 30 minutes.

I have also seen a few doctors in the UMass system and the general theme with all of them was you to had ride them for everything. They would want tests done and then forget to order them. Then when you call to follow up they give you a hard time. They would get test results and then fail to call or inform you; usually you have to seek out of the information like a private investigator!!

No one should go there. With all the great hospitals in Massachusetts, any one of them is a better option.

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FalsePattern6258 t1_iwt2raw wrote

You do know that Milford and UMass are affiliated right? So a lot of the doctors at UMass University campus are the same ones at Milford...

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_iwqotbc wrote

Before 2010, America had the absolute best healthcare in the world, Best in every conceivable category especially the cost. Along came talk about the Affordable Care Act and people were gushing over the idea. They were enthralled with the new president/messiah who promised so much and delivered nothing. I knew we were in trouble even before Obamacare became the law of the land. It hadn't got much press here at first but it did in Canada. A cousin in Quebec called me to warn me, she said that it was like deja vu. Everything she saw on American television was exactly the same BS Canada had used to promote Canadian Medicare (their health system). I remember something particularly chilling she said then, she said, "people die in the ERs up here, wait times can be days." I told her that sounded a bit exaggerated, she swore it was not. They live close to the US border and for a time were shopping here for prescription drugs but that fell apart after 2014. So when people are blowing rainbows out their ass over some new government program, beware.

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HongPong t1_iwr4jwk wrote

life expectancy was still lower in the US in 2010 than a lot of other places. this is not accurate.

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_iwrnmg9 wrote

Life expectancy isn't soley based on the quality of health care there are many more factors. In industrialized nations there are millions of things that affect one's health. Prior to the ACA if you were a senior citizen that required life saving medical treatment like an organ transplant you had a reasonable expectation of receiving that treatment. Now you'll be told to go home and get your affairs in order because you are going to die. The best you can expect is pain management if needed and hospice care. That is the reality of the ACA. The political liability of what some called death panels inspired some creative editing, the panels remain, their existence just got buried in other language. Life and death decisions are still based on the bottom line. You can dig and google that all you want and you won't find it but it will become very apparent if you develop a life changing illness. I have a dear friend who has an aggressive cancer that is deemed terminal in any stage in which it's diagnosed. There are some treatments that are not a cure but have been proven to extend the patients life expectancy and improve the quality of life. Apparently these treatments are very expensive. My friend was informed that they don't qualify for the treatment because they are unable to share the cost of treatment.

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