What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

and do you have to treat them?

I am just curious. Your stories always seem to either crack me up or shake my head in amazement.

Thanks for sharing

This is completely true, a couple of weeks ago it was around 0200 on a Sunday morning. It was actually not too busy. Man arrives with his wife with him, she is sitting in the waiting room and he comes in to triage and says he wants "to have my wife checked out to see of she has been sleeping around" (he didn't use the word sleeping). Stated they were "doing it" when he put his head "down there" and thought he could smell a condom. Wants the doctor to check her out to see if she has been unfaithful. All the while the wife is just sitting in the waiting room, patiently. I told him that my physician was not going to examine her for this complaint and that maybe they needed to seek some counseling for this concern, opened the door and said "have a nice day". I have received numerous laughs over this one.

These trivial complaints are generally not covered by any form of insurance and even medicaid is cracking down on non emergent visits. The patients are usually very angry when they receive a bill for $600.00 in the mail. More and more hospitals are becomming more and more aggressive at collecting on these bills also. The way to treat under educated consumers who utilize a resource for the wrong reasons is to hit them in the pocket book. Paying a huge bill will get them to think about visiting their primary care physician first or trying home treatments. People just dont want to think any more. They'd rather go crying to "Mommy" aka the "ER" than to try to take care of it themselves. We've created a very dependent society.

I always seem to get the ones who come to ED for routine illnessess, chest colds, strep, etc that have just come from their doctor's office. You see the doc examined them and gave them an rx but they want a second opinion, or they don't feel any better yet. Never mind they haven't gotten the script filled or even taken a pill yet. I'd love to say "Lemme see what Dr Jones gave you. Yep, looks like the proper course of treatment for bronchitis to me." Rings little bell. "Thank you. Next!"