Waiting in the ER & Heard This

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

So I was waiting in the ER (I just had surgery a week ago on an ovarian cyst & my lower back was killing me) & this lovely couple with huge Big Gulp cups walk in & proceed to fill out the questionnaire for the triage nurse.

The husband had sat down & the wife was filling out the paper work for herself. The wife yells over to her husband, so he comes over. She asks him, "How do I fill this out so them bring me back faster?". I don't know how far my eyes popped out of my head. But she turned in the sheet & told the woman that her doctor sent her over & she's having "chest pains" & might have a blood clot.

Well this woman who is having "chest pains" & a supposed blood clot then went outside & paced back & forth on the phone.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

I don't think she's going to like what happens next to her. IV, blood work, EKG., maybe urine. Possibly the doctor might order an EtOH, cardiac wires blood-pressure wires, oximetry ... Overnight stay with repeat blood work, stress echo, etc. Easily a 10 to 12 hours stay in the ER . Unless the triage nurse smells the BS in triage...

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

I understand not liking long ED waits and all, BUT lying simply to be seen faster and wasting the ER staff's valuable time is a pathological condition all by itself. Someone with a true medical condition and legitimate need could potential end up waiting while they determine whether not that woman is telling the truth or not. I'd have outted her to the triage nurse.

We've had folks sign out AMA, go down the road to a gas station and call 911 with the misguided assumption they'd be seen faster if they came in by ambulance.

Yeah, that's what triage is for...regardless of how you arrive in the ED. Some things just cannot be explained to folks.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

I was half-tempted to say something but I kept my mouth shut. When the chart was handed to the triage nurses & told what the problem was possible blood clot & "chest pain" they scoffed. I half smiled & laughed in my head.

When I was waiting in a room, she walked by with her husband, chugging her Big Gulp. Never saw someone with "chest pain" & possible blood clot look so happy. I was in more pain from my kidneys!

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Specializes in ER.

Triaging weeds those out - we know when someone tries to pull the "I have chest pain" card but then the Doc tells them she has GERD, while drinking her Big Gulp and eating her McD's. We may throw in an EKG, but other than that, she'll wait like all the rest. That's what we do - triage. She will learn. Maybe.

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...

We've had folks sign out AMA, go down the road to a gas station and call 911 with the misguided assumption they'd be seen faster if they came in by ambulance.

...

I loved picking those up when I worked EMS.

I would call the hospital and my report was "en-route non-emergency with a triagable patient". Most of the time we would walk them in the ambulance bay right to where they were 30 minutes ago (and 30 minutes behind in line where they were before).

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/LDRP/Ortho ASC.

Ugh, even when you do smell the BS they get an EKG and a workup. Bleh! They do this crap on the daily...one time our triage nurse was on the walkie calling for a stretcher because someone seized outside. I'm thinking possible c-spine injury, compromised airway, oh the possibilities. I go running out there like a chicken with my head cut off and and when I arrived the nurse was giving me "THAT" look. I was confused, whatever, took pt to the back. The Security guard comes down the hall just howling...he is laughing so hard he is crying. He tells the charge nurse to review the security footage. My pt had literally looked around and had her lookout person double check the coast was clear, laid on the ground, and started thrashing. It just so happened we were on a 3 hour wait. :no:

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.

She may not have liked what came after that, as someone else said,...if she allowed it...I had told the ER Doc I was a little short of breath one of my last ER visits and the ER Doc wanted to do an angiogram. Ahhh....no. In hindsight, I think it was just the infection and slight anemia that was making me SOB.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

I wish I could've stayed & to find out what happened. I'm so curious now. :p

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Welcome to my world.

Some of these players, as soon as they are in the presence of a doc, will cut to the chase of why they're *really* here ... and it usually involves a goal of a quick score of narcotics, a work excuse, a pregnancy test, or other of life's necessities.

Others really are determined to get the million dollar workup for something. Whether or not they get it will depend on how well they've studied the symptoms to rule in the big & bad stuff within their differential.

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Specializes in Emergency.
Others really are determined to get the million dollar workup for something. Whether or not they get it will depend on how well they've studied the symptoms to rule in the big & bad stuff within their differential.

Paging dr google to the er, stat,

Paging dr google to the er, stat.

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This works well in my ER.

When a pt uses those words, a charge nurse goes straight back to get them. We have no triage- we have the joy of immediate rooming.

This is why the smokers cough costochondritis is seen before the cardiac related shoulder pain.

Luckily, truly critical patients can't fill out satisfaction cards.

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