10+ Hour UAB Waits Arrive At St. Vincent's ER - UAB Kicks Out Patients Asking About Triage Queue

Summer, 2026 - Birmingham, Alabama - With the $450 million acquisition deal now a year and a half behind us, I thought it interesting to see some of the University hospital policies which are observable in the St. Vincent's hospitals.

One change appears to be in the ER where 10+ hour wait times are now being reported in patient reviews day after day. I myself had some experience with this when I waited 5 hours (I talked to people who said they were waiting 12 hours) at the UAB ER, downtown in summer, 2019 with broken skull head trauma and around 6 inches diameter of infection in my head and neck. I watched withdrawing drug addicts & homeless off the streets looking for temporary shelter rapidly admitted.

Now, St. Vincent's patients are reporting rude responses from the ER staff when (after standing for hours) they simply approach the counter to get an update on their position in the triage queue. I also saw this at UAB in 2019, their policy was to threaten patients with removal if they repeatedly inquired as to their status!

Multiple visits & gradually higher levels of scanning but they would not acknowledge the broken basilar skull injury (occipital condyle / condylar canal) or several diameter infection that appeared in the MRI / CT / X-RAY I had to go back in and find AFTER I GOT MY RECORDS!
- On August 23, 2018 my first ER visit here, complaining with neck / spinal injury, I felt I had a broken neck. Nurse Daniel Farrell and Timothy Crump CRNP tended to me. I had X-Rays taken and was told it was cervical muscle strain. X-Ray read by Birmingham Radiological Group Doctor Julian Patrick Druhan.
- I was told I had no injury but may have strained my neck and immediately protested because I had broken bones before. They said they could do nothing else and gave me an ice pack and some pain meds and told me to go home.
-They took more xray pictures than later appeared on my records CD - from different angles, that showed my injury area clearly. Images showing the injury from behind were absent from the copy of the record I received. DICOM Metadata tags show the last image taken was numbered “10”. Images 2,3,8 are absent.
- 4/22/19 return ER visit. Injury had not improved but my health had worsened and the pain in my head neck sent me back here. Kimberly Burns CRNP & Dr. Frederic M. Jones attended to me. CT scan without contrast was performed. Read again by Doctor Julian Patrick Druhan (for BRG). Metadata Tags - Head Trauma Study Priority listed as HIGH. I was misdiagnosed again here as having cervical muscle strain, no injuries noted. Images show basilar skull bone damage / break. Again I protested that my injury was more serious and getting worse but was dismissed with pain meds.
-I got the CT images & records days later and found here CLEARLY broken skull bone in the occipital condyle / condylar canal / foramen magnum area (SEE IMAGES IN MY VIDEOS).