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

Specialties Emergency

Published

Don't ya just love when patients call to ask if the ER is busy and then call 911 anyway. IMO if you can call to see about wait times ...it is NOT an Emergency. I am also always amazed how many frequent flyers say they didn't get a referral...I make it a point to show them their referral address & phone number to a clinic, MD, dentist, etc to make sure they get continuity of care that ER's are not set up to provide. It's all a money game everyone feels they are owed by the system. The sad thing is so many frequent flyers are like the boy that cried wolf, eventually they will have something serious. Mean while they all get the million dollar work-ups every time they come and the one time they don't they will win the law suit lottery.

Toq

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Specializes in Family Practice Clinic.

Had one yesterday that called 911 for "sore and achy all over" this dude has been in our ER once a week for the last month for the same thing. Told it was arthritis, just like all of the other trips. To make a long story short, he had a follow up visit with our GI surgeon who only comes on Tuesday , he had called EMS at 0730, his appt. was at 0930. His family showed up two hours later to take him home.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
Ambulance triage. Ambulance takes a call for a finger cut: refuse to pick pt. up, and bill pt. for ambulance call. Even if they don't pay the fine, they won't be calling again unless there is a real emergency.

We all pay for it, you know....

wayunderpaid

It sounds like the easy way to do it, but the research studies I found when doing a field traige paper, on the whole said EMS underrated what turned out to be a critical call up to 10% of the time. Don't get me wrong, I love our EMS guys and some (most) of the calls would be no brainers, but still, don't want my mom dieing 'cause she was undertriaged. The reasoning was that EMS is trained to focus in on really acute things, and missed the more subtle stuff. When they tried with call in to an RN or MD, EMS would be on scene before the triage process and decision that a rig didn't need to be sent could be made.

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Specializes in Emergency - Pediatric.

An EDT where I work told me about a guy that calls 911 every week, claiming unrelieved chest pain, just to get a ride into town to do his grocery shopping. He leaves the hospital AMA to go to the store nearby. I don't know how he gets back home. :-)

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That's the thing I don't understand. When people call EMS just to get a ride into town to do their grocery shopping, go to their favorite liquor store, gambling hall, etc. and go AMA when they get to the hospital, have they thought about how they are going to get back from whence they came?

Last I checked, EMS didn't give rides back to the house for those who have legitimate complaints, never mind those who abuse the system.

Do they have friends their to take them back or something? I just don't get that.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
That's the thing I don't understand. When people call EMS just to get a ride into town to do their grocery shopping, go to their favorite liquor store, gambling hall, etc. and go AMA when they get to the hospital, have they thought about how they are going to get back from whence they came?

Last I checked, EMS didn't give rides back to the house for those who have legitimate complaints, never mind those who abuse the system.

Do they have friends their to take them back or something? I just don't get that.

These folks tend to kind of live in the moment, ya know?

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These folks tend to kind of live in the moment, ya know?

At my hospital they give cab vouchers.

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Specializes in ER/PICU.

sad,but oh true!

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Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
Yes, the Cleveland Clinic.

Bad joke, nevermind.

You read my mind! :rotfl:

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How does this surprise any of you? The EMS system is abused! I work in an inner city ER, we see it all and we are the first/last/only medical providers for our patients. Are there other options? Yes there are hundreds. Unfortunately, if you've worked an inner city ER, you know why they are not accessible to the patients. On a good day, there will be less then fifty in our waiting room with another fifty plus in the back. We are busy. The ER gets it all.

I have heard this call from the ER waiting room. "Yes, 911 I'm at (insert hospital name here). I've been waiting for ten minutes because my nail hurts. The b*tchs at the desk said that you won't pick me up from the waiting room so I'm gonna walk up the driveway and wait for the ambulance there." After the pt hung up, they did indeed walk up and wait for the ambulance. The patient was walked back into the ER after she decided she did not want transport to another hospital, she just wanted to "get seen faster."

My true home is in the back of an ambulance. I've gotten calls for blisters, hangnails, and my favorite, "We lost it, you know inside." I have written a two page report on a scraped knee. Two pages for a knee. Why? Because I gave the 10 yo a placebo band aid. Thus, ruining the family vacation because "she can't do anything now!" This was stated right before the ETOH mother took a swing at me.

Like the ER, ambulance cannot refuse transport. "You call, we haul." Is uttered everyday. Our EMS calls are prioritized, but the pts know there way around that too. There is no way to determine if there is a real emergency until we get there. So every call is lights and sirens. Putting my partner, the public, and myself in danger. I cannot tell you the feelings I have when I get to the call and it is a FF who has the education to know what an emergency is, and they choice to ignore it all. While I am transporting the pt who states "I have this prescription and it has two refills left, but I think I need to go to the ER to get another. Just in case."

I think about the emergencies that have to wait because there is simply no one available. When the tones go off and there is no one to answer that call, how many people may die? I have to bit my tongue. Heaven forbid, it was one of our own that needed help. How do you tell your brother or sister to wait because there is no one available? They would know why, but that does not take away that feeling of guilt that you can't be there for them. The guilt does not go away, believe me.

There are no easy answers, no easy solutions for this problem. Often EMS is between a rock and a hard place.

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