oh ye uninformed... this is why er nurses "don't care"

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Specializes in Emergency Room.
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Specializes in Geriatrics/Family Practice.

Oh my goodness!!! I've heard of nurses quiting ER because of it being used as a walk-in clinic rather than for real emergencies. I never thought that ambulances were also abused. If we could get a set of statistics, what do you wanna bet these people are the ones with no insurance, no job, and nothing else better to do. I'm sorry but I personally have better things to do with my time and money and taking an ambulance to the ER for a hang nail is not in my daily agenda. If they were all told ahead of time that they had to pay a $100.00 copay, I bet the urgency of needing an ambulance and ER all together would go down. I've never taken an ambulance in my 36 years and have only been to ER once, and that experience alone would detour me from going there unless I was in cardiac arrest or having a real trauma. And we wonder why healthcare insurance is so damn expensive for the ones of us that pay for it. And to you who read this and are on assistance legitimately, this is not aimed towards you, just the abusers of the system.

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That is absolutely disgusting.

Are there no clinics in Cleavland?

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Specializes in RN- Med/surg.

wow- insane

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Exactly the reason I sat with my 19 month old son, with his chin cut open in the ER waiting room for 3 FREAKIN HOURS as he bled all over me! In the meantime, a man who checked in before us LEFT the ER for 2 hours and then came back and was STILL taken back to be treated before us!!!!!!! My son ended up with 3 stitches. I checked in just before 11 am and we got home around 4pm.....and the hospital was 1 mile from my house...

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

I work there and there are clinics but it is easier to catch an ambulance ride in and think you are going to be seen quicker. They send people out to chairs all the time. And guess who is paying for their "limo" ride....me and you. None of these people have private insurance, because if they did, they would be paying for that ride out of their pocket. And, the clinics actually will TELL people to go to the ER instead of waiting til the next day. One nurse did tell me that people are getting wise and will say they have chest pain...then they get back there and say that they really don't but they wanted to be seen quicker. I'd have a hard time not smacking them upside the head.

A few months ago I had to take my DD in because she had a badly broken arm....as employees they do take us back quicker and get us a room, but they were telling people that it was a 8-10 hour wait to be seen. There was a little girl in the waiting area that had an obviously injured leg and was crying, pale. Her mom told me that they had been there for 5 hours already. That really made me sad that this child was made to wait while others were there for boils on their butt, constipation, etc. The person checking in before me said she had a rash on her arm, it didn't itch, hurt or anything, but she couldn't get in to see a doctor so she came to the ER. Whatever.

There is a great group of people that work there, but I can't even imagine putting up with that crap everyday.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

No surprises here ...

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Our EMS system bears the brunt of ridiculous calls. I am a pre-hospital RN in IL and volunteer. We are fortunate that in our rural community the cals are usually legit. However we do have some folks that drink and have loud parties and then pass out so we get calls for male or female down, must use lights and sirens because we don't know it ISN'T a real deal and its bogus.

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Let me tell you using the ambulance for a free taxi into the city is a trick that has been around for sometime. I have been hearing my medic friends complain about it for along time.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, Heme/Onc.

"You call, we haul", indeed...

We send people who are non-urgent to the waiting room to be triaged even if they arrive via EMS.

Blee

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

Oh my....at first it seemed funny to me, but when they started to interview the idiots I got a little angry.

I can handle the ones who are uneducated and don't understand what the EMS/ER systems are for, but the one who said "I just didn't want to wait any longer" and went home to call 911, and THEN obviously felt no shame, well, that gets to me. I stopped watching after her.

I really think some lovely educational commercials need to be put in place to explain what an emergency is, and the consequences of taking a squad out of service to transport your waxy ear to the ER.

We were starting to get such a problem with people being either brought in by squad or being dropped off, and suddenly having NO ride home. "I dont' know no one 'round here." We stopped giving out cab vouchers. We now have some bus passes but don't give those out as often as we are asked.

I hate being this riled up at 0830 :angryfire:lol2:

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That is absolutely disgusting.

Are there no clinics in Cleavland?

Yes, the Cleveland Clinic.

Bad joke, nevermind.

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