I'm looking for personal opinions and/or legal opinions.
Backstory, my wife took our daughter to the ER a few months ago. She was screaming in pain. They sat in the waiting room for 3 hours, daughter crying in pain the whole time. Finally they gave her a wristband and took her back to a room. Waited over 30 minutes until a nurse stopped by, took her temp etc, and left. Nurse came back, said she is burning up and the doc wants her to take a fever reducer, but the nurse didn't bring any with her. Another hour passes and the nurse still hasn't come back with the medication, the doc hasn't even peeked his head in. At that point it was 8 am so my wife called her pediatrician and they could get her in right away. My wife left, told them why she was leaving, and they acknowledged, then proceeded to bill for full emergency room visit even though the doctor never showed up, nor saw the patient. They said as soon as she is given a wrist-band and taken to a room she has been "seen" even if she NEVER sees a doctor the entire time she is there.
I can't help but think that if I go to a restaurant, wait 4 hrs to be seated, the waiter takes our drink order and never comes back with the drinks, and never takes an order for food, and I get up and walk out, and tell the manager why, I'm not on the hook for the cost of the drinks. So why, in the medical industry, am I on the hook for their services that were not actually rendered?