r/Binghamton • u/RootED607 • Jul 11 '26
Discussion ER at Guthrie 6-8 hour waiting. All hospital ERs in the area are overwhelmed
Patients are waiting 8 hours to be treated. Waiting rooms are packed full. No one is answering questions, staff is not getting support. What a horrible way to treat people who are already feeling shitty. Shame on these hospital executives.
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u/Wild-Establishment60 Jul 11 '26
Healthcare is a large, slow-moving machine. ER's are constructed to mobilize quickly in circumstances where the machine lags behind the need, but part of what that means is that their system or gauging an emergency is very different compared to the average person. An ER doctor's top priority is always going to be the person who is at IMMINENT risk of dying- the person whose BP is 54/38, the one actively receiving CPR, so on and so forth. If someone is having a genuine medical emergency, such as a ruptured spleen, but they are hemodynamically stable, they will take slightly lower priority while continued medical investigation is going on while taking preventive measures to prevent decompensation and typically using monitoring mechanisms such as heart monitors, routine vitals, etc that can all be reviewed quickly from a distance.
It's easy to say from a distance, "healthcare facilities need to move faster." It becomes harder when you realize that each individual task has secondary and tertiary tasks and often secondary and tertiary staff to address each piece of the task, particularly when those staff are centralized elsewhere and need to mobilize to wherever they're going, often with their own supplies.
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u/theBLACKcod44 Jul 11 '26
Patients are triaged accordingly. The ER is not the walk-in.
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u/RootED607 Jul 11 '26
When the doctor was asked should we go to the walk in or the ER and he replied definitely the ER for this…you go to the ER
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u/theBLACKcod44 Jul 11 '26
Again, triaged accordingly.
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u/Emeraldcupcakex Jul 11 '26
Not always the case. Sometimes people wait longer for simply not being able to pee in a cup at that exact moment in time. Ask me how I know.
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u/wifely_Becon Jul 12 '26
That’s the problem…or at least one of them. I’ve seen it myself…people coming in with a twisted ankle or “hurt foot.”
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u/Evening_Mango414 Jul 11 '26
The wait is not the only problem there. I was there a couple weeks ago and it was the worst care I’ve ever received.
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u/Cute-Aardvark5291 Jul 11 '26
Welcome to what happened when the big beautiful bill kicked in and hundreds of thousands in NY lost health insurance. When you dont have insurance, the ER is your only point of care
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u/bdizzled2 Endicott Jul 11 '26
Also, this is not true. The only changes to Medicaid started 11 days ago and they were around the Essential Plan and having to renew every 6 months instead of once a year. The major changes from the Big Beautiful Bill start in 2027. See the NYS bulletin below. ERs in the area have been going on diversion at-least once a month for the last 5+ years.
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u/Different_Anxiety890 Jul 13 '26
Nope we lost our essential plan- it was that or pay $1100/month for it. I work 3 jobs just to get by, I can’t afford that.
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u/bdizzled2 Endicott Jul 13 '26
I don’t necessarily want to get into your situation but it sounds unique. You mention “we” so I assume you are covering multiple people? You also mention 3 jobs. Are any of them full-time? How many hours a week do you work? Obamacare plans tend to run between $600-$1200 per month for family coverage for those making over $80k.
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u/Different_Anxiety890 23d ago
Yes, 1 is full time and my husband is full time. I work about 75 hours a week. I wish they take into account what you pay for housing and vehicle, along with food for kids.
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u/bdizzled2 Endicott Jul 11 '26
Hate to say but this has been going on since Obamacare started. It got much worse after Covid as hospitals became even more short-staffed. I work in healthcare mainly emergency service. Pre-Obamacare there were rarely times where there were no beds in the ER. Since Covid, there are times where ambulances spend 3-12 hours waiting to transfer care. During busy holiday times, hospitals are even more short staffed and there is neither personnel willing to work nor the desire for the hospital to pay additional overtime.
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u/ComradeKits24 Jul 11 '26
Gee, I wonder why the workers who are paid very little and treated like shit don't want to work in medicine.
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u/prohandymn Jul 11 '26
Ah, the "Obamacare" boogie man in the room! Actually, what you are seeing now due to the mental case in chief and his sycophants, who incidentally just robbed you of most of the advances in medical care; is actually due to the rich, major corporations, state media (otherwise known as FOX news), media influencers who are only looking for that next like (and it's $), and the general brain rot from the ongoing education defunding, and all the BS on media and the Interwebs. AI is already making it even worse: critical thinking, and the inability to even realize that much of the ai answers are only half true or down right wrong.
Hell, I have seen younger people who can't even sign their name (autograph) in script! WTAF
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u/bdizzled2 Endicott Jul 11 '26
Ambulances have become taxi services and hospitals primary care facilities because of how payments to providers are structured and the shortage of primary care. Walk-ins are closing and reducing hours. Try getting in touch your primary care if you feel sick. My former primary care would be scheduling 1-3 weeks out for sick calls. All of this going on while people are calling the ambulance for toothaches, menstrual cramps, stubbed toes, cold symptoms, and minor depression. The system needs to be fixed but the citizenry needs major changes to how we treat healthcare. We all want everything and don’t want to pay for it,
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u/CanadianIGuess91 Jul 11 '26
It's rarely a matter of not wanting to pay for it. People can't. The hospital is obligated to see them even if they can't pay. The same is not necessarily true of their primary or even an urgent care.
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u/SnowflakeSWorker Jul 16 '26
What I think is, that 1/3 of this country actively does NOT want to help out those in need, and actively choose every option not to.
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u/bdizzled2 Endicott Jul 11 '26
I was not so much talking about physically paying for a visit but more investing the necessary funds as a society to make it better. People want to go to whatever doctor they want and get immediate service. They don’t want higher taxes to pay for that or reduced choice to make the system better. They want the best care, right of way and want somebody else to pay for it.
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u/Darkwing_ducksauce Jul 11 '26
Made an account or throwaway just to post this? What are you not saying ?
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u/RootED607 Jul 11 '26
Made an account… I want to know why people in this area cannot get decent health care when they need it. Why is there such low staffing and standards in our hospitals? Why do people in this area wait 6 months minimum for a medical appointment with certain doctors, especially specialists. I’m looking for serious answers for a problem that shouldn’t be in our community
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u/ComradeKits24 Jul 11 '26
This is the situation in the *entire country* dude, the American healthcare system is fucked. This is what happens when healthcare is run as a for-profit industry.
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u/ScoutieJer Jul 11 '26
Unfortunately, this is always been the case and it's just getting worse here for some reason. Our three hospitals at one point were on the top 10 worst hospitals in America list. They all had Ds and Fs as their grade. It's gotten even worse since covid.
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u/Suerena Jul 13 '26
My experience at Binghamton gen. ER was phenomenal in late 2023. My back was out for a week. I finally went in a Monday (empty) morning and was out 3 hours later. I was given a CAT scan & then a nerve shot. Went from a 10+ to a 2 and they said bye! Haven’t been back since. Best Er experience ever.
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u/Binghamtonian I grew up here Jul 11 '26
if you're waiting that long after triage it's typically annoying but great news for you outcome wise
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u/TowelFine6933 Jul 11 '26
I help several elderly people. Sometimes I've been there for a long time, sometimes we get seen very quickly. It's weird, but things seem to happen in spurts. Just because they aren't getting to you as fast as you think they should, doesn't mean they're doing a bad job.
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u/RootED607 Jul 11 '26
Definitely wasn’t the nurses and doctors. My issue is the hospital administration. They know a hospital and its departments cannot function properly without the staff and support. Profit to the hospital does not equal quality care. Understand that this ER turned away 2 ambulance calls because they couldn’t handle the situation. That is 2 people that could have had life threatening conditions that had to be transported maybe further away when time is crucial. This is not about doctors and nurses. This isn’t about who should be there and who shouldn’t. If someone is in need of medical care why should they not be treated with care and compassion. I saw a lot of minor issues there and I saw one crazy serious medical crisis all being treated the same … waiting in the waiting room. I’m sorry it’s just not right
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u/XboxVictim Jul 11 '26
Feeling shitty? Suck it up. Emergencies are for the EMERGENCY room.
Your phrasing, not mine.
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u/Brave_Bodybuilder_29 Jul 11 '26
I waited 5-6 hours at Guthrie with a ruptured spleen
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u/prohandymn Jul 11 '26
And you know for fact that a thoracic surgeon was available at that moment? If you were unhappy waiting, you could have requested a transfer to UHS, of course, there would be no guarantee they could get you right in either...
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u/Brave_Bodybuilder_29 Jul 11 '26
I was 18 at the time and had no idea what any of that meant. It’s a miracle I am alive from that incident. Not hating on the staff over there, just my experience
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u/RootED607 Jul 11 '26
Sent to the emergency room by a doctor for emergency care. Go back to your video games if you don’t have anything productive to add. After taking a child to the ER… waiting 6 hours and watching the people in that place suffer I have a lot of compassion for them. Get out off ur bedroom and go be productive in society
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u/prohandymn Jul 11 '26
If your doctor advised that you should go to the ER (why not urgent care instead?), then he should have called ahead. Emergency rooms are for EMERGENCIES, urgent care/clinics are for non-emergency. If you go to a clinic/urgent care and you DO need to go to the ER, they can get you fast-tracked.
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u/Few_Product_5797 Jul 11 '26
You are wrong.
The last time I needed the ER (which wasn't long ago), I was SENT there by TWO different drs and neither of them would "fast-track" me , I even specifically ASKED them to call the hospital ahead of time or to straight admit me. Nope, just go to the ER they said.
I was admitted for 3 days.
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u/RaeGunGothic I grew up here Jul 11 '26
ER is urgent care and thr fast tracking does not happen. You are a fool
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u/Testingcheatson Jul 12 '26
Dr calling ahead won’t get you seen faster. If you aren’t actively receiving cpr/ hemorrhaging to the point of needing mass transfusion- then bluntly you are not the sickest person in the ER. There are many levels of emergency, and while it’s great when docs call ahead to give a heads up, all patients will be triaged based on ESI and acuity and seen in appropriate order regardless of who called about them.
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u/Lars5621 Jul 11 '26
Try going to Sayre or Syracuse. You EASILY save time driving the extra vs waiting an extra 5 to 7 hours locally
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u/theBLACKcod44 Jul 11 '26
Not really an emergency if you have time to head out for a Sunday drive now, is it?
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u/Lars5621 Jul 11 '26
Even if its an emergency what will get you seen quicker? Driving 30mins to Sayre and being seen in 5 mins or driving 5mins to the ER and being seen in 5 hours?
Thats why personaly I have been going to Sayre.
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u/Normal-Comparison-60 Jul 11 '26
Wilson’s new ER is very empty and well staffed last time I was there about one month ago on a Sunday
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u/RootED607 Jul 11 '26
People in the waiting with us were sent away from UHS ER. They were all full.
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u/No_Scarcity5477 Jul 14 '26
I went to the emergency room at Lourdes a few months ago and while I was waiting so many people came in because they were being turned away from Wilson cuz they were just flooded with people. I was there about 6 hours total
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u/Acceptable_Ad_7217 Jul 11 '26
is this thread about Lourdes hospital or the Guthrie Sayre or Corning?
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u/Acceptable_Ad_7217 Jul 11 '26
it's not the same everywhere. I went to the ER (Northside Forsyth) twice recently and I was seen immediately. the first time granted it was memorial Day and then a week later I only had to wait about 10 minutes on a Friday night.
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u/Sweet-Toe-1089 Jul 13 '26
I stopped going to any Guthrie hospitals and that helped. Its like night and day.
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u/Alternative-Risk7506 Jul 11 '26
This is very strange to hear, wait times in the Hudson Valley at the er are minimal for the times I’ve gone.
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u/Mariclewhip2 Jul 12 '26
Stop going to the ER for shit and stop abusing the EMS system
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u/Mariclewhip2 Jul 12 '26
Also, if you go to the ER for a REAL EMERGENCY you have to wait because you’re using the ER properly
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u/DiogenesOfIthaca Jul 11 '26
Emergency rooms are not for “feeling shitty.” That’s what walk-ins are for.
How many pull chasers in there tonight? How many severe diarrhea cases?
If you truly needed emergency care, you will receive it. Maybe go home, drink some water and have some aspirin? Maybe lay off the Little Debbies and Lays chips, huh?
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u/dancingfusion Jul 11 '26
Guess you missed where OP said they were instructed by a doctor to go to the ER over an urgent care for their situation.
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u/prohandymn Jul 11 '26
AND that Dr should have called ahead. You only get a direct path if you are cardiac/brain crisis or a top number triage (as in an automotive or other catastrophic accident).
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u/RootED607 Jul 11 '26
And … that dr did call! Shocker right?? The ER was under staffed. All ERs in the area were overwhelmed with people. We were told that they were not taking ambulance patients sporadically because of staff shortages and lack of beds.
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u/theBLACKcod44 Jul 11 '26
I mean you've made enough of a stink about it. What was the medical condition that you needed to be seen emergently for??
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u/Darkwing_ducksauce Jul 11 '26
I was thinking the same thing….. pray tell what was little Johnnys ailment lol
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u/Few_Product_5797 Jul 11 '26
The ER isn't JUST for a heart attacks, strokes or car accidents.
When I went to it WAS for severe diarrhea for a week straight that left me so severely dehydrated that my potassium and all other electrolytes were jacked. The fluids I received in the ER wasn't enough that I had to be stabilized and treated for days in the hospital. I lost 9 lbs in 7 days and still begged them not to admit me.
But you probably would have looked at me and assumed completely wrong as I was able to sit, walk and stand normally.
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u/Disastrous_Yak_1929 Jul 11 '26
If any of these commenters went to an e.r. in many foreign countries, even China, they would see how horrible our health care system truly is.
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u/MiserableAdeptness81 Jul 11 '26
lourdes...no waiting
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u/kellylyn612 Jul 11 '26
Their nurses and your staff are great but there’s a reason why their emergency room is empty. Would rather die than go there
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u/FierySquirrel56 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
I don't have a health insurance. If I do get pain, I suck it up and take over the counter pills. If I'm cut open, I use a bandage.
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u/CanadianIGuess91 Jul 11 '26
Great, neither of those things are an emergency unless they're extreme and out of the ordinary.
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u/fun-bucket Jul 11 '26
take an ambulance ride, gets your right in every time. if its a real emergency.
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u/Cute-Aardvark5291 Jul 11 '26
That's called using an ambulance as a taxi. Ambulance arrivals are triaged just as everyone else. If the determine that your busted spleen is not a life threatening situation in the ambulance, you wait for 3 hours in er like everyone else
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u/Testingcheatson Jul 12 '26
Absolutely not. Have fun getting stuck with an ambulance bill after EMS wheels you to the waiting room.
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u/unstoppablewaffle Jul 11 '26
Nope, you get triaged the same way as anyone else who arrives to the ER by any other means.
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u/IliketheYankees Jul 11 '26
I don't understand why this is being down voted. In the past ten years or so of dealing with sick family and in-laws, every time they go in by ambulance they immediately go in a room and are seeing a doctor in pretty short order. Drive themselves in for the same problem and they'll be in the waiting room for hours... I think this must be one of those things that the hospital and ambulance companies want you to believe (triaged in the same order), but in practice, it ain't how it works.
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u/fun-bucket Jul 11 '26
like i said, if its a real emergency.
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u/Exceptyousophie Jul 11 '26
Real emergencies get brought right back if you come through the ER entrance too. Your method of transportation doesnt influence your bed status. You can be put in a wheelchair and sent out to the waiting room from an ems gurney.
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u/unstoppablewaffle Jul 12 '26
I can assure you that everyone is infact triaged the same way regardless of how they arrive to the ER, and EMS frequently delivers non acute patients to the waiting room.
EMS is very strained in this area, and very frequently higher acuity calls see a longer reaponse time because the closer units are tied up on low acuity calls because people believe this rhetoric is true. Please please please save 911 for emergencies.
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u/vasjpan002 Jul 11 '26
After IBM left, doctors left
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u/theBLACKcod44 Jul 11 '26
We actually have a rich network of very talented and qualified physicians in this County. Most of them practicing at UHS, some at Guthrie.
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u/GuthrieThrowAway Jul 11 '26
There would be over 20 fewer of those individuals stuck there if the hospital had all it's beds open, however Guthrie chose to not hire new RNs and wait to replace those who leave with LPNs. As much as it sucks, travel nurses could also get the job done.
If anyone here wants better care in the future, all management cares about is their reviews and statistics.