"Emergency Department"

Recently on a weekend at around mid-morning, I brought my partner in to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital ED to have his post-op wound checked as it had become infected. We spoke to the triage nurse  and explained that he has just recently had heart surgery in Perth at St John of God Subiaco and we were a bit concerned about the wound in the groin area, as it had become a little infected and needed someone to have a look.

We had to repeat ourselves a few times as the triage nurse wasn't hearing us clearly or couldn't understand what we were tying to saying. By the time we got out the back into a room to wait for a someone to see us, when the nurse came into us and read out the triage notes - it said dizzy and vertigo. Completely different to what we had explained. We can understand if there is a lot of background noise, but on this morning, it was pretty quiet in the waiting room.

We also waited around 4hrs to see the doctor on duty (well it seemed that long of a wait). The doctor said to us, how come no one has seen you yet with your symptoms. He then proceeded to ask lots of questions and check for signs of stroke, just doing his job from what he read on the report. It took a lot longer than it needed to take. I asked the nurse if they were busy and she said, no it was a reasonable quiet morning in the ED, only a couple that needed extra care.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if the triage nurse misinterprets what the consumer is saying about their presentation at the time, it could become a very complicated visit to the ED. 

Apart from the little hiccup we where treated great from your ED staff.