On occasion, our Emergency Department gets backed up for several reasons. Sometimes the volume of patients in the emergency department exceeds our capacity as defined by the number of physicians, nurses and treatment beds available. Sometimes there are no available acute care beds in the hospital to accept patients from the Emergency Department. At times, there may be a wait for diagnostic testing (X-ray) or laboratory results. Sometimes the volume of emergency patients in the top triage categories ties up our emergency resources. In any of these cases, patients can expect a longer wait for service. Speak with a nurse if you decide to leave without seeing a doctor.