Easter Sunday, our almost 8 months old woke up at 7am, much later than her usual 5am morning call. I picked her up from her crib and right away I could feel that she was very warm. I took out our super fancy ear thermometer that my dad gave me and took her temperature. Side note: I rolled my eyes when he gave it to me a year ago, but now I’m ever so thankful he gave us one because there’s nothing more uncomfortable than to have to take your child’s temperature via their bum…think about it, if you don’t like it, they probably don’t like it either.

                                                                                                                                                                             Within 3 seconds, I’m given a temperature result of 38.5, yup, she’s got a fever. I also noticed her diaper was pretty foul in smell, the same smell that I’d recognized just less than 2 months ago. I knew right away her UTI was back, and this time probably with a vengeance.

 

So here we were, Easter Sunday, probably not the greatest of times to want and need medical attention that wasn’t overly life threatening. If it was for me personally, I’d suck it up and wait the following day when everything was back to business. But for an infant, it was 1) uncomfortable as heck, because she cried every time she peed and 2) it’s the second time within 2 months, I didn’t want to take any chances on her. I wanted medical attention for my baby.

My choices were pretty much limited to ER or walk-in clinics. I don’t know much about every walk-in clinics, but I know they don’t have much resources in terms of certain on-site tests, I highly doubt they’d have the capacity to do a preliminary urine test for positive UTI. So I guess I was to brave the ER.

 

I don’t like ER for a few reasons: there’s always a lot of people there, and the wait itself in my opinion is way more painful than the dislocated shoulder or stomach ache you’re there for. ER is for true emergencies with life threatening conditions, so really, my daughter’s UTI is not really a true emergency. Part of me feel like an ER abuser for even thinking of walking into that place, but it is what it is on an Easter Sunday…

 

Our closest ER is Mackenzie Health, we got there for 9:30am, and I regret my decision already. Thankfully it’s a holiday, so parking across the street at the high school was free and unmonitored. I take my ticket and wait to be called by the triage nurse, my number was much further than what they were currently on, so I let my eyes wander around to scope things out.

 

I noticed a poster on a couple of the walls that advertised “Vaughan’s Urgent Care Centre” located at Jane and Major Mackenzie. Above the map of the clinic it says “We treat the less serious very seriously. Staffed by Emergency Department doctors and nurses”. The hours of operations are Monday to Friday from 4pm-10pm and Weekends/Holidays from 10am-4pm. I immediately give up my place in line and left the ER. We head to the UCC instead.

 

We got to the UCC at around 9:45am. The clinic itself was already open and there were patients waiting there, not many, but a few. The process is simple, you take a number and wait to be called to get registered with the reception staff, and be placed in cue.   

 

By about 10:15am, we were set up in an examination room and the nurses were there to take the initial vitals. By 10:30am we were seen by the doctor on duty. We had to stay longer because we needed to collect urine sample from my daughter, and unfortunately, the UCC was not equipped to collect urine via catheter, so we had to do the bag method. At about 11:30am we finally got some urine. Within 15 mins, the doctor came back to the examination room to confirm it was very positive for UTI. He highly recommended that we go to Mackenzie Health and have proper clean samples collected the same day, as well as have their on-duty pediatrician look at her and start treatment on the spot if necessary. Since the UCC is an extension of Mackenzie Health Hospital, the on-duty UCC doctor can fast track any of the patients that were being referred to emergency from the UCC, this can help in shredding off some wait time at the ER.

 

We got there for about 12:30pm. We still had to go through the standard triage and registration process. Being Easter Sunday, the wait was extremely long. Can I reiterate that I don’t like the ER? This day, I found it to be overcrowded for unnecessary reasons. I took note that more than half of the people waiting, were there for “moral support” to the patients in waiting. Here’s the thing, and you can smack me if you want, but what is the point of you being there for so-called support at the ER? What good do you bring to the hospital team by being there for the person you’re there to “support”. I understand if you are there because your relative cannot speak the language, or you’re the parent of a child, that’s fine, and expected, totally understand, but what I saw was more than half the people in the waiting room sitting there, taking up space, creating more chaos than necessary. During our wait time, I even saw an entourage of 7 people walk in with 1 person. Point is, if you have nothing else (i.e. you’re not a cardiac surgeon, a nurse, etc…) to offer other than moral support, then it’s probably best you stay home and let the health professionals take care of your loved ones as they are in good hands.

 

Any who, I digress, and let me get down from the soapbox…

 

We finally get called by the triage nurse, she greets me, after I tell her we’d been sent here via UCC, she acknowledges, prints up necessary papers and direct us to the registration desk. We get registered, then we’re asked to sit and wait. At this time, I’m hearing the conversation of another triage nurse telling the parents of a toddler that if they choose to wait, it was an eight hour wait at the moment. As I’m dreading what I’m hearing, I get called by the nurse. Hey, UCC does fast track you!

 

We were there for a total of 5 hours. During this time, the nurse took blood and urine samples, and the ER doctor prescribed a dose of antibiotics via IV. We’d have been done around the 3 hour mark, but we had to wait for the on-duty pediatrician to assess and clear us. Even though we were there for a total of 5 hours, we were still faster than the normal waiting period.

 

Had this been a regular day, I don’t think we would have been sent to the ER, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to go. The Vaughan Urgent Care Centre is designed to allow you to go to a ER-like clinic with all the necessary resources without having to actually go to the ER. I liked the UCC, and I’d certainly highly recommend anyone with a “non-emergency” emergency go there first. Leave the ER alone unless it’s life threatening.