The rise of ER 'chair care': Canadian patients examined in waiting rooms, closets, washrooms amid bed shortage
2026-05-29 from here
Uncontrolled, undetected internal bleeding, an emergency medicine “time bomb,” can kill within hours.
So, when Dr. Fraser Mackay saw a young woman recently with a minor shoulder injury from a fall who seemed in an inordinate amount of pain, his gut told him something was off.
She was seated in a chair in a very public, high traffic area of a Saint John, N.B., emergency department. No space for a proper assessment. Nowhere to assess her privately. Mackay decided she needed a bedside ultrasound of her abdomen. A proper ultrasound requires laying the patient down and lifting their clothing. Except there were no empty stretchers. So, she just sat there, in pain.
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