Ambulance pts in waiting room

[gotaluvtheER]

How common is it in your ER to put a totally NON-EMERGENT ambulance pt in the waiting room?

I've read lots of posts and c/o about putting bogus amb pts in rooms, why not send them to the waiting room???

Is there some sort of law against doing this? Of course, I mean only the obvious BS ones, like FFs with chronic back pain, stubbed toe, toothaches, etc. I've only seen it done a couple of times, so is it more common in big cities with bigger ERs?

[veetach]

Shhh. Don't let a lawyer see that. We don't want to give them any more ideas than they already have. :chuckle

you took the words right out of my mouth! :chuckle

[Victoriakem]

I see nothing wrong at all with sending those whiners, non-emergent patients to the WR who come in by ambo. Serves them right for using this service for their problems that have been on-going for a long time. But I will say, I must be getting psychic, or is it psycho. I took an EMS call about a 40 yr old male & thought out loud, "It must be a back pain" & I was right. They know how to get to the front of the line.

[lilyleigh04]

when i was a volunteer in the er, we would send a lot of non-emergency pts to the waiting room (either that or our fast track area). of course they would want to know why they weren't getting care before anyone else...but hey, when you call 911 with a non-emergency that's what's gonna happen. a couple would actually just leave..

~tina