Why an Emergency Hospitals takes longer time to wait than Walk-in Clinic?
Answer: Usually a walk in clinic is not staffed to handle "emergencies" so ambulance and other immediate medical need patients are only taken to ER's. By law, a hospital is required to treat patients on a immediate need basis vs. a first come first serve.
Walk in clinics generally have the same level of care for each patient, coughs, colds, fevers, maybe an occasional sprain or broken bone, so for the most part they can see patients pretty much on a first come first serve.
Hospitals may have to monitor difficulty breathing, consciousness levels and have ambulance and other trauma cases coming in the back door which would potentially take priority to your symptoms.
Also, hospitals need to isolate infectious waste, so bleeding or vomiting patients are generally given a room (if possible) to prevent the spread of infectious waste..
Walk in clinics do not have a government mandate to treat everyone who walked in the door regardless of ability to pay. Hospital ERs do. Therefore, hospital ERs have more patients, many of whom could easily be served by walk in clinics if they were paying clients. Bigger organization? Staffing problems/Management/Shortage?
Bureaucracy problems? More hoops to go through?.
ERs treat people with the most severe injuries/symptoms first. He may have gotten there first, but they will take the guy having a heart attack before they see someone with a broken leg.