2 Hallway

“2 Hallway” is a maddening stretch of a corridor lined with patients–actually, not a corridor, not even really a hallway–just a parade of stretchers in a collective “holding” area, waiting to be placed in one of the two main areas of the ED. 2 Hallway lines our work station and wraps around the clerk’s desk, its tail whipping out through the double doors to inhabit what is finally, truly, a hallway. Patients lie nauseated, vomiting, often in pain, often in no pain at all, waiting to be placed in a real patient area, where they are ultimately assigned a nurse and a doctor. We can physically see them, talk to them, appreciate their distress, but, maddeningly, can’t do anything tangible for them, because they have no official location yet. And once they are assigned a spot in the ED, their entire situation changes. 2 Hallway is a limbo where the relationship between patient and physician is purely theoretical. 

This column is a minimally-edited, safe space that serves to reflect the work we do, the thoughts that plague us, the joys, sorrows, and in-betweens we all witness.

The thoughts expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the Kings County/SUNY Downstate EM Blog Team.