Every day on my way home from work, I see it.

The billboard for a local emergency room. With a digital clock, letting me know at any given time, just how long my emergency would have to wait in their room. Just how loud I’d have to groan to get ahead of the rest of the fakers.

I don’t get it.

But then again, I am from Titusville. And in Titusville there’s only one option for the nearly dead and badly broken, and very few billboards for anything.

Today the digital, digital get down boasted a wait time of 22 minutes.

Now, by definition, an emergency is something that cannot wait. And logically, if you can wait 22 minutes, it’s probably not broken or “attacking.”

Further, I can’t imagine an emergency situation where any factor beside proximity would be considered when choosing the folks to operate, save, etc. Because if pain is unbearable or a life is on the line, you’re not going to put your name on the list and check the other emergency room with the happy hour special.

In fact, in a true emergency, there is no line.

Sure, if you sprained your ankle and don’t want to wait ’til Monday to see the black-and-white snapshot, then you’re probably going to have to sit at the bar until you can be seated while the folks with erupting organs are served.

But if tomorrow isn’t looking so good, there’s always a table for one available.

I may be taking it a bit too far, but I  think the marketing super-squad at this emergency room stopped a little short.

A picture of the sign would have been great. And I wanted to take one, but I was afraid that an attempt to do so during rush hour in South Florida might land me at the wrong end of a 22-minute line.

Tagged as: advertisements, emergency room advertisements, Emergency Rooms