I'm a lil' pissed off

After work tonight I came home and found out my mother had gone to the local ER without telling me, so I leave as soon as I get home and go wait with her. My mother hurt her back 15 years ago and has been in pain for 8 weeks with her back, has tried numerous different medications, and finally three days ago began to find some relief. Well today she started having a leg cramp around 11:30 this morning, I didn't really think anything of it, but it never went away. Her leg proceeded to cramp up off and on for the remainder of the day. I finally talked her into taking her flexeril to see if that would relieve the pain, and it did for a bit. Apparently her foot went numb extending up mid-calf and she started crying when my dad came home so he took her to the hospital. Well I met them so my dad could go home, and we waited for only an hour and fifteen minutes. I thought that was pretty good considering the ER was full. Then instead of taking us into the ER we were put in triage, and they had a PA come and do an "exam" that was really nothing more than taking an extended history. He then proceeded to tell her that this was just due to her back hurting and that eventually the foot numbness would go away. Maybe I'm just naive, but that doesn't exactly fit my definition of an exam. The thing that really bothers me about this is the fact that my mom left in the same amount of pain with no relief in sight, and the fact that we'll get charged out the butt for this "exam". We'll be charged for an ER visit, but we never made it to the ER. We'll be charged for seeing the doctor, but only saw his PA. It just doesn't seem quite right...