Independent Lens

The Waiting Room

Highland Hospital, a vital part of the city of Oakland, California, is stretched to the breaking point, with 250 patients crowding its emergency room every day. This film is a cinema verité portrait of one city's public safety-net hospital as it struggles to handle patient overload in a swooning economy and the constantly shifting landscape of health care policy.

The Waiting Room: Behind the Scenes of a Real Life ER

4m 54s

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary, The Waiting Room, staff and doctors in the busy ER of Oakland's Highland Hospital work tirelessly to provide care for patients who have no healthcare safety-net.

Previews + Extras

  • The Waiting Room: Waiting Room Stories Personalize Health Ca: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Waiting Room: Waiting Room Stories Personalize Health Ca

    S14 E19 - 3m 50s

    In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary, The Waiting Room, patients in the waiting room of Oakland's Highland Hospital ER share their stories of their struggles within the American healthcare system with one another.

  • The Waiting Room - Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Waiting Room - Preview

    S14 E19 - 30s

    The Waiting Room intimately follows several people who pass through the emergency room of Highland Hospital in East Oakland, CA. Shot over several months and with a poignant mix of humor and drama, the film presents a composite portrait of a public institution struggling to care for a persistent and growing stream of patients living on the fringes of America's health care system.

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