I recently took my sister to the emergency department at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend. She was referred by her primary care physician late afternoon on a Friday. The doctor wanted to have her admitted to the hospital. 

We arrived about 5:30 p.m. She checked in, and then in short order was interviewed twice and told to sit down. I don’t drive after dark due to an eye condition, so my brother came to sit with her about 8 p.m. After 11 p.m., she was told to go home because the ER doctors didn’t see a reason to hospitalize her.

If there was no reason to hospitalize her, why did it take six hours to make that decision? Why is it that waiting rooms are packed in the evenings so many nights? Is it lack of staffing, or lack of facility space?

I wouldn’t go willingly to the RiverBend emergency department. I would choose to go to the ER at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center instead. I suspect that the people and ambulances that go to RiverBend are used to getting there and waiting. 

Annetta Forrer
Eugene