Reducing misuse of Emergency Departments!

Uptoherern, RN · Mar 7, 2004

tom..........I like the slap therapy............. :chuckle

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Mar 7, 2004

It worked 99% of the time

z's playa · Mar 7, 2004

Our hospital just recently added a Satellite Unit to the ER. (not a satellite in sight ) Here is where all the "could have gone to the clinic" pts are seen. It speeds things up and keeps the beds open for the more serious cases. Of course if something turns out to be serious, they're immediately transferred to obs right around the corner.

parkernurse · Mar 7, 2004

My absolute biggest pet peeve is the parent that rushes their child into the ER because they have just discovered that the child has a fever...when questioned when the last dose of Tylenol/Motrin was given..the response...."well I didn't give hime anything I rushed him right here so you could see how high it was"!!! Hello....can we say febrile seizure people! Pediatricians really need to educate these people a little bit more. :angryfire

Or the one who did not medicate the child because she wanted the nurse to believe it was hi at home.. I love to tell these ones it is child abuse not to treat the problem if they know it is there. :rolleyes:

luvallbabies · Mar 8, 2004

a bout a yr and a half ago my 7 yr old had been complaining that right above his knee was hurting , he would limp around me , but i thought he was just trying to get attention,, my father had just passed away and we just had a new baby, a few days later we were at mcdonolds w/ my mom and he was playing ,, running around everywhere but still limping so my mom made me take him to the ER, i really felt stupid bringing him and even told the nurses i really didn't think anything was wrong with him,,~~ but i still listen to my mom~~ anyway they got him right in ,, did a ton of tests on him , one he even had to go to sleep for,, ~~now i am wanting to sh*t my pants, and they had a bone specialist come down and talk to me, they thought he might have a bone infection in the hip,, i guess the tests came back negative so we got to go home,the next day we were tracked down,, i have never had so many drs and nurses ever go all out in looking for my where abouts, and they wanted me to bring him back to the er immediatly because they needed to admit him , i don't know all the terms they use, but they started him on iv antibiotics and said he was septic but still he was fine running around playing video games in the peds ward, the dr couldn';t believe how active he was, we were there for a few weeks then he had a picc line in at home for quite some time, then oral antibiotics

and here i didn't want to bring him in and if i had waited any longer he might have had to have surgery,

After reading much of the posts about ED Nursing, my first suggestion would be for people to stop inserting objects where they do not belong!.On a more serious note, i just read an article in the paper about a study completed which showed that 41% of parents undermedicate their children for fevers. the study examined Emergency room visits, and it determined that those visits could have been avoided had the children been dosed appropriately. What are your suggestions to reduce unecessary visits to the ER?

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Mar 10, 2004

I have no suggestions because whatever is suggested wont happen in my lifetime anyhow

scrncurt · Mar 16, 2004

I have come to believe that stupidity is big business or we would somehow be able to educate these fools that use EMS like a taxi service. The Hospital administrators are not going to attempt to turn away business. It is going to have to take the community being fed up with paying higher taxes for unnecessary medical service to force change upon the system. I suggest that there be a system of holding all of the Earned Income these people get to pay for the hospital bills. When they realize they actually have to pay for something they start to use the gray matter a little bit more.

Jay Levan · Mar 16, 2004

After reading much of the posts about ED Nursing, my first suggestion would be for people to stop inserting objects where they do not belong!.On a more serious note, i just read an article in the paper about a study completed which showed that 41% of parents undermedicate their children for fevers. the study examined Emergency room visits, and it determined that those visits could have been avoided had the children been dosed appropriately. What are your suggestions to reduce unecessary visits to the ER?

Sorry to disagree, but I'm Afraid you are Overlooking some very glaring circumstances. First let me say that I do agree with your statistical information, and that I have felt the abuse you are explaining for thirty one years. However in that period of time a lot has happened to not only promote this abuse but to also expand it. The #1 influence has been our federal government. In the year 2003 there were approximately 40,000,000 people with no health insurance at all. There are those statisticians that believe that number will double this year to 80,000,000 people, leaving this vast amount of people with nowhere to go but the emergency room to see a doctor :angryfire Yet this same government finds ways to spend our money to cure the Ills of the entire world. I won't get on my soap box here, but some people are illiterate and cannot figure out how to take proper care of their children :crying2:

However that has been an E.R. problem since I've been doing it. My associate, this problem will not fade, in fact I believe it will continue to increase until Gabrial blows his horn, I further believe that time is very close. The best advise I may offer is to stop beating those people down, they are already in dire circumstances, and these type feelings on our parts, only makes things worse for them. I truly hope that your experiences as an E.R. Nurse will help you gain more knowledge of your fellow human beings plights and that your understanding will grow with the years ahead of you. If you feel the need to discuss this interesting discussion, please feel free to PM me any time or answer here, whichever is to your liking. Thanx for reading this.

nekhismom · Mar 16, 2004

One sure fire way to end ER abuse???

.

..CLOSE THE UNIT! :rotfl:

Nothing short of that will work.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2004

One sure fire way to end ER abuse???
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..CLOSE THE UNIT! :rotfl:
Nothing short of that will work.

Thats about it also.

nothing much will do it otherwise

if you want to stop people going to 7-11

then close it

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2004

Last night at triage was wierd

Lady signed only her 4 yo son in with pharangitis

then while triaging him she decided she wanted the others looked, even though they had no complaints

the she decided she wanted to be seen for her backache and abdominal pain.

one sign in

ended up triaging all 6 of them

her dx=====pregnant again

welcome to Texas Yall

RNin92 · Mar 17, 2004

Last night at triage was wierd
Lady signed only her 4 yo son in with pharangitis
then while triaging him she decided she wanted the others looked, even though they had no complaints
the she decided she wanted to be seen for her backache and abdominal pain.
one sign in
ended up triaging all 6 of them
her dx=====pregnant again
welcome to Texas Yall

That would be...

Welcome to the good ole U S of A my friend!