I apologize

Specialties Emergency

Published

To my ER colleagues, I am very sorry. Sometimes you try and try and try to teach patients about what symptoms require ER visits vs PCP or urgent care clinic. You can only beat your head into a wall so long before throwing your hands up and telling them to do whatever they want.Again, I'm sorry, I really did try. :(

We have one like that too. Comes in every few days cause of her "migraines" but refuses to get care outside the ER. Its so bad she asks which doc is working and if it is a certain one, she just leaves.

We are not allowed to tell folks who the doc is. ;)

And they do call in to ask. Some even cruise the parking lot to see which doc's automobile is there.

As to the folks who use the ER for regular doc visits and don't listen to advice and become frequent fliers . .. . this has been the nature of the ER for as long as I can remember.

I think I tend to view it as MunkiRN said . . . . we might be a tad bit bored if we only got true emergencies, depending on where we live. I'm in a rural area. Lots of chest pain stuff, not much trauma.

WTH is IIH?

Idiopathic intracranial HTN...or pseudotumor cerebri (have a friend who has it).

or...the guy who checks in at triage, sees a line building and realizes "shucks, my abdominal pain isn't getting in in front of chest pain?" flash forward 90 minutes...this gem returns home, calls 911 c/o chest pain. you know it, comes in code 2, gets right in a bed. yeah, we're onto you buddy...was at the bedside as the doc let him know how the ED rolls.

priceless...i can gar-un-tee this fool will never pull this BS again.

every person is different in his choice and action and his ability to understand what u tell

thank u for trying

"Hangnail, yeast infection, cold sx for 2 hours...seriously???"

Reminds me though of a case from my early primary-care days: 40's-something woman with cc of recurrent yeast infections. Due to the "recurrent" part I ordered a somewhat wider workup, incl blood for HIV Ab, TSH...the lab thought the blood sample was funny, too liquidy, so they ran a CBC: Hgb was 3.5. Checked a new sample: Hgb 3.4. Sent her straight for direct admit. Got transfused several units obviously. Final dx: 7+ cm colon cancer, miraculously not metastatic.

That yeast infection (and the clinic lab workers' intuition) almost certainly saved her life.

(Oddly, the only symptom which was bugging her enough to present to the PCP for the first time in several yrs was the lady partsl itch, not the 40+ lb unintentional weight loss, the change in stool caliber, nor the increased fatigue...)

So, you never know for sure based on the CC. (Well, maybe the hangnail.)

That said , y'all sure do describe some humdingers on this forum. Keep 'em coming!

Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.
I think more and more ED's are developing to include a "minor care" department. If we had a system that had a 24 hour urgent care we would have ED's less clogged and less overwhelmed nurses... believe me, I had to go for stitches at 2 am once and I felt so guilty about walking past all the RN's and docs I knew, but where else was I supposed to go?

I think every ER needs a 24 hr urgent care next to it. I used to live near one that had extended hours. I thought I had broke my hand, shoe up at the ER because I was a dumb 18 year old and my parents were at work. They told me 6 hour wait for ER or I could go to urgent care in same parking lot and be seen in 30 minutes. I was grateful for the info and gladly left.

we had a lady who waited for our "non urgent" part of to ER for 30 minutes and said "finally". Very snotty when her name got called. I told her my last ER she would have waited 8 to 14 hours for her non emergency. At least it shut her up some...

then a mom brought in her kid with a fever and was astounded that they weren't getting a gurney just chairs. I explained only really sick patients get those as we have 70 to 90 patients in the ER at any time. Also anyone in a bed had an Iv and multiple tests. She was upset because her daughter was tired. I love it when we have a coding patient roll by in those moments. That helps explain things more than anything I ever could. I wanted to say. If we don't get a pulse back maybe she can have that gurney.....

Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
I just love their blank state when you ask what the emergency is....

And then when they start to answer that question with "well, about six months ago..."

Anne, RNC

Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

I work Private Duty, and I had to take a patient to the ER once at the insistence of the (non-present) guardian "because can't breathe" (as diagnosed by non-medically-educated guardian via phone call :rolleyes:). Patient was stridorous, but not in any distress at all. Trach was capped and was satting 97% and patient was saying they didn't want to go to the ER, they weren't sick, etc.

I apologized profusely to the intake receptionist, the triage RN, the assigned RN, the resident, the registration clerk, and the attending. *sigh*

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