I’ve worked in ERs where on a really busy night patients with chest pain and a cardiac history that came in by ambulance went out to the lobby because their EKG was mostly okay and literally the only room open was the resuscitation bay. We kept checking on him in the lobby and did repeat EKGs until a room was available, but if there’s not space and they’re not dying, they’ll just have to wait.
A broken arm sucks ass but an extra half an hour drive to get seen 2 hours sooner seems like a good trade.
I’ve worked in ERs where on a really busy night patients with chest pain and a cardiac history that came in by ambulance went out to the lobby because their EKG was mostly okay and literally the only room open was the resuscitation bay. We kept checking on him in the lobby and did repeat EKGs until a room was available, but if there’s not space and they’re not dying, they’ll just have to wait.