ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) -- Emergency room wait times have become a long standing issue at Albany Medical Center and its continuing to frustrate patients and staff alike.

Cynthia Cowan went to Albany Med's emergency room earlier this month after she injured her spine. Little did she know that she was going to be there for the next 36 hours, spending 27 of them in the waiting room.

"I arrived there about 3:30 pm Thursday," said Cowan.

"I wasn't seen until 7:30 p.m. that next day [Friday]," she adds.

She said she spent 27 hours just sitting in the waiting room, fearing to leave in case her name was called.

"They did a roll call every few hours, and if you weren't there, they'll take you off the list, which is why I was nervous leaving at all," she said.

For 27 hours, she barely slept and ate as the pain in her back got worse.

"The receptionist told me there is typically a 30 hour wait in the ER and that I'm supposed to know that," said Cowan.

She was discharged from the hospital around 2:30 am Saturday after she was told she needed to schedule surgery to fix a herniated disc in her spine.

For Albany Med's ER staff, they fear the situation in the Emergency Department has reached a critical point.

"This is by far the most chaotic and unsafe environment I've worked in," said an ER nurse who didn't want to be identified.

"There's jus tno room to take care of anyone," the nurse adds.

The ER nurse, who is not a member of the nurse's union, believes the automatic acceptance of transfers is causing the hospital to take on more patients than they can handle.

"They just bypass closer hospitals that have these specialties. Because we're on an auto accept program, we're the first ones they go to," said the nurse.

The nurse explained that the auto accept program makes it easy for other hospitals to transfer patients to Albany Med.

Albany Med is the region's only Level I Trauma Center, treating the most critical patients. It's also the only Level 1 pediatric Trauma Center in the region.

But the nurse feels that the hospital can offload the overcrowding of patients by managing transfers of stable patients.

"There is no reason to take these stable transfers when they can have these things done the next morning or next day in their own area," the nurse said.

The nurse became emotional when telling CBS 6 that she felt patients weren't getting the care they deserve because of the overcrowding.

"It's hard to put your head on a pillow that night and go to sleep knowing that that is happening. Albany Med's ER team is one of the best and most professional and kind human beings I've ever worked with and I think we just want to see the right thing being done for the patient," the nurse said.

CBS 6 took these concerns to Albany Med.

"If we have the capacity, we will care for that patient. If we have the capability we will care for that patient," said Matt Markham, Vice President of Communications at Albany Med about the auto accept policy.

CBS 6's BRIANA SUPARDI: "What do you have to say to the ER nurses who say Albany Med is accepting patients into the ED when the ED isn't capable of taking on more patients?"

MATT MARKHAM: "Well the auto accept policy that we have, we've had for more than 20 years, and it is contingent on capability and capacity so we will only care for the patients that we are medically and surgically able to care for."

CBS'S Briana Supardi asked Markham why some nurses felt the situation in the ED had gotten worse over recent years.

"I can tell you that the healthcare landscape is complex and it is complicated particularly in this area as well. The community hospitals are under a lot more pressure on their level. The cases that a community hospital cannot care for come to Albany Medical Center. So as the safety net hospital for the area, we are receiving more patients than we had previously but again back to our mission we understand the indispensable role we hold in this community and we will care for as many patients as we can," he said.

Markham says the hospital has made great investments to grow its workforce and that there are expansion plans for the emergency room.

Markham explained the hospital plans to expand the ED by 8,000 square feet or by roughly 25 percent of its current size.