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"Time to be triaged"

About: King Edward Memorial Hospital

(as a relative),

I am leaving feedback due to my concern about my experience as the partner of a patient, who has a background in triaging in Emergency Departments for approximately 9 years. I love our nursing profession and the people that make our industry great but when something is unsafe it’s important to call it out for our patients and colleagues so this comes from a place of being “helpful” and not hurtful.

My wife is pregnant (yay!) and was experiencing some concerning symptoms at work and presented to the emergency departing (EC) at KEMH one afternoon. We waited 1hr and 39 minutes to be triaged leaving her at considerable risk as an undifferentiated patient in a waiting room.

A triage, as per the standard should take approximately 3-5 minutes and with no other observable “priority” events in the calm and surprisingly tranquil waiting room (no code blue, aggression, difficult situations), up until her triage, only 4 patients were observed by me to be triaged in that time. More concerningly, I recall 2 patients did not wait to be seen and patients were seen based on arrival time, not objective priority. Patients with abdominal pain, guarding, active vomiting and distress we're waiting in time order next to patients who were on their phone having a relaxed conversation (of course the triage nurse may have known something I didn't). It took 7-10 minutes between each patient as paperwork was completed meticulously, seemingly being prioritised over the other patients potential deterioration.

I was shocked to see such an apparently low impression of urgency by the gold standard of obstetric cares emergency department. The staff were of course kind and caring as so many are. My feedback is intended to alert someone who will listen to provide better training, systems and care to those at more risk than us and can only hope that this department improved significantly and does not experience the pain of what some high profile public cases have been reported about. Please take this feedback seriously, I am very concerned from both a patient and (semi-) staff perspective about what was observed. 

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Responses

Response from Karen Keating, A/Director Safety Quality and Performance, Safety Quality and Performance, Women and Newborn Heath Service 4 days ago
Karen Keating
A/Director Safety Quality and Performance, Safety Quality and Performance,
Women and Newborn Heath Service
Submitted on 27/03/2025 at 2:39 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 28/03/2025 at 10:50 AM


Dear Unknown S,

Congratulations on the wonderful news about your wife’s pregnancy.

I was concerned to read about your experience during your wife’s presentation to the Emergency department at the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH). The triage process you describe does not align with our value of care, and I’m sorry this was your experience. The issues you describe, including waiting for your wife to be triaged and your detailed observations of the waiting room at that time, are issues we would like to review in more depth with the aim to target improvement strategies for care delivery in the emergency setting.

Thank you for taking the time to outline your concerns via Care Opinion. We would be grateful for the opportunity to undertake a review into the care you observed, and your wife received, if you feel comfortable doing so, I would encourage you to contact our Consumer Liaison Service on 6458 1444 or email them at wnhscls@health.wa.gov.au to enable us to investigate further.

Thank you for taking the time to share your story, and I do hope we hear from you soon.

Kind regards

Karen

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