My PT called 911

typoagain · Oct 11, 2014

I had a pt call from the ER waiting room. An ambulance picked her up, took her around to the ambulance door, through triage and then sat her down in the exact same chair! The said good night and then walked off.

wanderlustnurse88, RN · Oct 11, 2014

My old hospital, you use to have to dial 9 to connect to a different site. Issue was when they had to dial the extension 11 after dialling 9.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Oct 11, 2014

My old hospital, you use to have to dial 9 to connect to a different site. Issue was when they had to dial the extension 11 after dialling 9.

Funny! What genius thought that was a good idea? Or was the hospital extension so old that it predated 911?

wanderlustnurse88, RN · Nov 8, 2014

I think it was old extensions and I think it was longer than 3 numbers. I think they added the 9 to connect hospital sites. They quickly changed that.

Editorial Team / Admin · Nov 8, 2014

My old hospital, you use to have to dial 9 to connect to a different site. Issue was when they had to dial the extension 11 after dialling 9.

My facility got around that by requiring anyone to dial 99 to get an outside line. So, to call 911, a patient would have to dial 99911. If they only dialed 911, they would get a busy signal to indicate that the call couldn't go through.

vengeance · Nov 10, 2014

I had a pt call from the ER waiting room. An ambulance picked her up, took her around to the ambulance door, through triage and then sat her down in the exact same chair! The said good night and then walked off.

I am a paramedic, recently graduated with MSN. I do this frequently. As it is generally the middle of the nite

ReadyToListen, CNA, EMT-B · Nov 10, 2014

I sure hope the triage nurse bumped her to the end of the line!!

NurseJessRN · Nov 14, 2014

LOL. Of course she called 911. Didn't you know your badge says RN for a reason? Refreshments and Narcotics. I'm awaiting management to add WB&R beside my letters (Warm Blanket and Remote)

silverbat · Nov 14, 2014

I worked in a hospital with an emergency panic button under the desk where the Ward Clerk generally sat. On one of my first nights there, I sat down, reached for the desk top to help steady myself and unknowingly- hit the panic button. This button rings at the police station. Imagine my suprise when the cops came running to the desk all worked up!!

paramedic-RN · Nov 15, 2014

Ok this is really just more of a vent... and maybe to see if any others have had this happen or something similar.
I had a patient two nights ago who was status dramaticus and after giving her narcotics and valium she was still demanding more medication (i'm used to that part) but she called 911 on her cell phone from her stretcher in the ER to complain that we were not treating her. To which I then had to explain to the dispatcher that emergency services were not needed all while my co-workers were coding a patient in the room next door.
I mean I guess its not the worse thing I have had a patient do... that would possibly be the time a patient threw a basin of vomit at me when I told her she wasn't getting any more pain meds...
Its been a rough two nights.
I love the ER.

If I know someones a drug seeker I tell them we will not give them pain meds. I flat out say it before they even see the MD almost as soon as I walk in the room first of all IF they complain to management the charge nurses know better and will have your back and 'those people' aren't the kind of people that write well worded letters to your director. I've had three people walk right out one of them walked past the nurses station proclaiming "ya'll won't give me pain meds, ya'll disrespecting me well I'm out".......okay bye guess you're refusing to sign the AMA, she left a bloody IV in her bed. My ER had a really good system in place the MD's would flat out refuse to give pain meds if someone was on the high alert list.

sockov, ADN, ASN, BSN, CNA, LVN · May 6, 2015

I was working in Critical Care and had a patient call 911 once saying he was being held hostage. We had to talk to the police telling them that he was in ICU and wasn't being held hostage but was unstable to go home yet. We took his cell phone and put it on airplane mode. No more 911 calls.

Jersiey · May 7, 2015

I was walking through the waiting room last night to get a pt and a guy at the phone asked me if he could call 911 for a ride home. My answer was, 'no, they're not a taxi service'. He didn't have a good comeback.