The “organization” may not profit but those at the top of it do, trust me

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 😔