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

Specialties Emergency Nursing Q/A

And did 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 ?

By ambulance at 2am, a blister on the rt great toe.

No ride back, no friends, and hungry (but I didn't need to tell you guys that)

And, yes we get a lot of people wanting a pregnancy test. Seems some insurances will pay for an er visit, but not an OTC test (go figure)

15 year old by ambulance 9 pm no shoes (mom called giving permission to treat) Neck pain I was brushing my teeth and I turned my neck and it hurt.

Saw her 16 year old sister earlier in the evening who also came by ambulance no shoes with menstral cramps. Five kids in the family all show up each week you guessed it by ambulance no shoes :angryfire

Convenience is the best excuse for our problem. Patients sometimes 3/shift coming in accompanied by the police in handcuffs with one diagnosis DRUNK turns out the officers are giving them the option jail or the emergency dept. DUH, lets see bars or a bed with a TV, three good meals and nurses you call call on a whim. Good for the officer no paperwork good for the patient no police record BAD for the nurse, patient cannot leave until sober which can be up to 16 hrs for some needless to say the patient gets a complete physical each time he comes in which can be literally just long enough to leave and get drunk again. Talk about abusing the system. What ever happened to check the patient out to medically clear him and send him off to jail :o

Well, I don't disagree with what you say, but I think it is more than not having access to a primary care provider. I live in a very rural area in the deep south, and even here we have a Public Health Department, a federally funded clinic for the indigent and working poor as well as a community mental health center.

Unfortunately, I think many folks come to the ER for other reasons:

-convenience (no need to make an appointment, and where else can you get your kids' runny noses checked out, your vag bleeding evaluated and your mom's migraine treated all at the same time and place? I mean, what ER nurse hasn't heard "While I'm here....")

-ignorance

-entertainment

-avoidence (you can't hardly go back to your pcp for more Lorcet when you just got your 'script filled yesterday)

-the system: some people must have that dreaded doctor's excuse to go back to work after only one sick day and if you live in an area with no urgent care, what can they do? Also, I think we've taught people over the past few generations to rely on the system instead of thinking for themselves (so of course you bring you kids to the doc if they vomit once).

-lack of funds (like we're not going to ask them to pay and then follow-up on it)

I think the answer is going to depend on a change in the whole health care system, and pardon my cynical attitude, but that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

Convenience is the best excuse for our problem. Patients sometimes 3/shift coming in accompanied by the police in handcuffs with one diagnosis DRUNK turns out the officers are giving them the option jail or the emergency dept. DUH, lets see bars or a bed with a TV, three good meals and nurses you call call on a whim. Good for the officer no paperwork good for the patient no police record BAD for the nurse, patient cannot leave until sober which can be up to 16 hrs for some needless to say the patient gets a complete physical each time he comes in which can be literally just long enough to leave and get drunk again. Talk about abusing the system. What ever happened to check the patient out to medically clear him and send him off to jail :o

Well, I don't disagree with what you say, but I think it is more than not having access to a primary care provider. I live in a very rural area in the deep south, and even here we have a Public Health Department, a federally funded clinic for the indigent and working poor as well as a community mental health center.

Unfortunately, I think many folks come to the ER for other reasons:

-convenience (no need to make an appointment, and where else can you get your kids' runny noses checked out, your vag bleeding evaluated and your mom's migraine treated all at the same time and place? I mean, what ER nurse hasn't heard "While I'm here....")

-ignorance

-entertainment

-avoidence (you can't hardly go back to your pcp for more Lorcet when you just got your 'script filled yesterday)

-the system: some people must have that dreaded doctor's excuse to go back to work after only one sick day and if you live in an area with no urgent care, what can they do? Also, I think we've taught people over the past few generations to rely on the system instead of thinking for themselves (so of course you bring you kids to the doc if they vomit once).

-lack of funds (like we're not going to ask them to pay and then follow-up on it)

I think the answer is going to depend on a change in the whole health care system, and pardon my cynical attitude, but that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

I guess these folks don't mind paying the larger co pay for stupidity

What do you mean pay.. I truly don't think they have any intention of paying for the visits or the ambulance rides. Even if there is a co pay, :angryfire they tell the billing dept they didn't bring any money they get treated and when the bill is sent it is placed in the round file. :angryfire

18 yrs er nursing

I had a man wanting to pay $105 to have his blood pressure checked.

What do you mean pay.. I truly don't think they have any intention of paying for the visits or the ambulance rides. Even if there is a co pay, :angryfire they tell the billing dept they didn't bring any money they get treated and when the bill is sent it is placed in the round file. :angryfire

18 yrs er nursing

I know just what you mean. I love the women who come in by ambulance for a labor check because they "didn't have a ride" and then they expect to get an ambulance ride back home! We tell that that there are two reasons that is not going to happen. One is that if they could get such a ride they would have to pay cash for it and it is likely to be $500 or more and number two is that the ambulance is not going to take a chance at being unavailable for a REAL emergency by playing taxi. It is amazing how quickly these folks manage to find a ride home on their own!!

We had a man come in wanting his ears washed...he got very angry when we told him we didn't know what the hospital charges for an ER visit / ear wash...finally left after he jumped up and down and swore and cried and wet himself...never did get his ears washed...sigh. About a week later, he came in for a free diabetic class (he is not diabetic) and did the same swearing, yelling, crying, wetting himself thing when he was told they didn't have copies of the handouts in French...I don't think he speaks French. We ended up calling our behavioral health people for him and they have a fun new client!

Sometimes I really feel like one of those stupid people. :o We now have a $700 ER bill because I didn't know how serious my son's injury was. Just last month we were at a picnic. My son and another boy got into an argument and the other boy decided to settle it by cracking my son on the head with a metal broomstick. Ben (my son) came running to me, blood dripping down him. It was a head wound and there was just so much blood! We went to the ER where he ended up with 5 stitches! I didn't know it wasn't severe. If I had, I would have taken him to the pediatrician's office. They would most certainly have seen Ben and taken care of him with the same care that he was given in the ER (they were awesome, btw), and I would have been given a $70 bill instead of a $700 .:crying2: We have no insurance, so we are working out a payment arrangement with the hospital. I just feel so stupid, though. I can't wait to get to the part in my nursing training where I can rationally decide what is and isn't an emergency. I saw the blood and freaked. I know you all are talking about some pretty silly reasons to end up in the ER, but I feel just awful about my own decision that landed us in this situation. Do a lot of people who just need a few stitches end up in the ER, or is just me? Ugh!

I don't think you are the least bit stupid. You seem to be a caring, concerned parent. As you said, there was a lot of blood, and you didn't know how severe the injury was. The ED is equipped to handle a lot more than the average pediatrician office. So look at it this way, what if the injury had been more serious and you took him to his MD's office only to have it be more than they could handle? They would have sent you to the ED, or called EMS to take him to the ED, and then you would have had 3 bills to pay, not just one. You did the best you could with the information you had at the time. As far as I'm concerned, you win the "good mom" award.

Our ped sends facial (probably head wounds too) needing stitches to the ER anyway. So you probably would have ended up with two bills. The other kids mom needs to pay for part of the bill.

I hadn't thought of that but you are absolutely right, the other kid was responsible for the injury so they should pay half. If it were me, I'd contact the other mom and let her know (very nicely of course) that her little @$#% of a son, cost you $700, not to mention the pain he cost your child, and that you only think that it would be fair for her to pay half of the cost. Since you are making payments, maybe the two of you could alternate months on making the payment. This could be helpful to her as well as she might not have $350 readily available.

Just a thought

This morning my 3 year old son woke up and told me he had a ball in his mouth. I said...hmmm...okay, let's have breakfast. The whole time he's eating, he's complaining because he wants me to take the ball out of his mouth. Now, my son has a vivid imagination, so I didn't pay much attention to him. After breakfast, we go in to brush his teeth and...there is a ball in his mouth. A perfectly round little abcess on his gum. I felt like the worst mom alive. ( listen to your kids people!)

We live in a very very small town, very rural, not a dentist to be found on a Sunday morning for any amount of money. So I took him to the ED, figuring if nothing else we could get him started on an antibiotic which he'd have to have before the dentist will touch him anyhow. So, off we go, we get there and the waiting room is almost empty. About 5 minutes later a rather homeless looking man comes running in yelling that he wants his wife brought to him right now! The lady in the reg booth comes out to quiten him and try to find out who his wife is. This guy, who seems just a wee bit drunk, is yelling at her that they have no right to keep his wife and they'd better give her back. A little more yelling before finally she learns the wife's name. She goes back to her booth while I pull my son a little closer and the man paces and mumbles to himself. Lady comes back out and asks him if his wife goes by some other name because she can't find her. Man loses it " You mean you LOST my #$&$ing WIFE? I'm gonna sue! I will OWN this place!"

Enter security guard. Big security guard. Man calms down a little. Security tells him that if he doesn't calm down they will call the police. Man looks puzzled then says " But you are the police" Security says " No, I'm a security guard" Man asks " Why does the police station have a security guard?" A few seconds of silence before security and the lady start cracking up, and I turn my head to keep him from seeing that I'm strangling to keep from laughing. You see, in our little tiny town, the police dept/jail is just across the highway from the hospital :rotfl:

One of the nurses is married to an officer and called him to relate the story. By the time my son had been prescribed his antibiotic, the officer had called back to report that Mr. Homeless Man had collected Mrs. Homeless Woman from the women's lock-up and no one would be sued afterall :p

Let's see...the kid who's mother brought him for razor burn because his work insisted that he shave daily. I tried to find a new triage category for that one...like a 6- totally stupid complaint - could be seen next year!! We had about 20 people in the waiting room at that time. He had quite the wait.

The young "pregnant" woman who came in with lady partsl bleeding. She couldn't figure out how she got pregnant because she used the patch. I ran a UCG on her and it was negative. She said "I don't understand that. I used all 5 tests in the box and they were all positive." I told her pregnancy tests usually come 2 to a box. You guessed it...she was using an ovulation predictor and was getting her period. That is why people should have to pass a test to be allowed to reproduce.

The malodourous lady partsl discharge x 2 weeks. Yeah, well, when you forget to remove your tampon, that's what happens. PS: I got a great tip from one of our docs. He uses sterile gloves when he goes tampon fishing. That way he just pulls the glove off over the tampon and ties it in a quick knot. Completely contains the smell. Exam gloves are too short.

Then I had the guy who was bitten by a water mocassin. He didn't want to kill the snake so he picked it up with a rake to try to move it to the woods. The snake is now totally p*ssed off and scared so the guy drops the snake. Now the snake is even more mad, so the guy tries to pick the snake up and whammo...he gets envenomated. I told him "If your name is not Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, and you are not getting paid millions of dollars to pick up the snake, leave it alone!"

Thanks for a great thread. I LMAO!

Those are hilarious! But what's extra funny is that I was reading fast and thought you wrote that the guy bit the snake...lol

We get enough of the pregnancy test b.s., which kills me...especially when they get fussy because we are seeing "those people that keep coming in bleeding or acting like they are having a heart attack." Buying a $7 pregnancy test at the drug store must be a foreign idea...guess where our taxes are going?!

You know, I just might be able to clear this one up for you all because when I worked in social services, I had a client tell me this. If you are pregnant and plan on applying for welfare, you have to have written proof that you are pregnant. So, these girls go to the ED, have the test done, get a note if it isn't already written on the discharge sheet, and turn it in with the application for aid. And since medi-cal/medicaid is usually retroactive for at least 30 days, the ED visit is covered.

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