Waiting in the ER & Heard This

[OrganizedChaos]

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.

[Purple_roses]

I was at the same ER a different time & a guy was brought in by ambulance. I don't know what for but they wheeled him into the waiting room to sign in. Hahaha!

Oh, I literally laughed out loud at this.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Many don't care. I had a mother with her 17 year old daughter with abdominal pain who had been in the ER for a total of about 2 hours. All tests had been done, just waiting for dispo/discharge paperwork. I told her it would be delayed for about 15 minutes because the Dr was in a room with a critical patient and would get to them as soon as he was done. Her response was "I don't care what else is going on, somebody needs to get us out of here".

"You know where the door is...but if you want your scripts you'll have to wait for the physician."

No one is holding them down.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Mb032, We get our pukers and bleeders into a more private area because seeing someone ill can set off a chain reaction, then everyone is vomiting. They usually don't get seen faster, but everyone in the waiting room is more comfortable.

[blah_blah_blah]

Many don't care. I had a mother with her 17 year old daughter with abdominal pain who had been in the ER for a total of about 2 hours. All tests had been done, just waiting for dispo/discharge paperwork. I told her it would be delayed for about 15 minutes because the Dr was in a room with a critical patient and would get to them as soon as he was done. Her response was "I don't care what else is going on, somebody needs to get us out of here".

That's horrible!

A lot of other posters here are also commenting on people leaving the ED just to call an ambulance to try to get in faster. What an abuse of resources. Talk about wasting everyone's time.

[Cohiba]

A couple of the EMS agencies serving the ED where I work will say "this patient is triage appropriate" when calling report over the radio and almost universally that patient will be taken to the waiting room like everyone else with a non-urgent complaint after their $1,500+ taxi ride (as if they ever had any intention of paying the bill...)

[kettlecorn60, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Unfortunately this happens everyday at the ER. People come in holding their bag from McDonalds or a DD coffee, and claim that they have "10/10 pain" "chest pain" or "trouble breathing." These have become some of the "code words" people use because they want to get in the door and seen faster. What they fail to realize is that they are just making the wait longer for those patients who really ARE an emergency!!! More and more patients are coming to ER's for anything but an emergency. It never used to be this way, and years ago we would never even consider going to the ER for the reasons people come in today!

[Guest219794]

Unfortunately this happens everyday at the ER. People come in holding their bag from McDonalds or a DD coffee, and claim that they have "10/10 pain" "chest pain" or "trouble breathing." These have become some of the "code words" people use because they want to get in the door and seen faster. What they fail to realize is that they are just making the wait longer for those patients who really ARE an emergency!!! More and more patients are coming to ER's for anything but an emergency. It never used to be this way, and years ago we would never even consider going to the ER for the reasons people come in today!

I think more to the point is that they fail to care that they are delaying care to emergent patients.

[kettlecorn60, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

You are so right. But they still have to be treated, regardless í ½í¸“

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

Where I work more and more ER patients are arriving with chest pain. They get priority treatment now. No triage nurse. Eventually everybody'll have chest pain and they'll have to go back to waiting in line.

[BellionRN]

When I worked in ER I had a friend text me that her nephew who was living with her at the time got into a minor fender bender and she was taking him & his friends to get checked out (note that on site they denied wanting an ambulance called & were walking around the scene, fine, until she went to pick them up. They were fine at the time & no, no other injuries popped up in her nephew afterward. They were fine). She asked me how she could minimize her wait time ... She told me she was going to "coach" him on what to say. Honestly I think she was just panicked, didn't think he really needed to be checked out but figured her sister would have a bird if she didn't take him. I was still shocked though as she is a nurse. Although not an ER nurse.

I had a couple problems with this, obviously, the main one being that if you "coach" someone on what to say, then you're not going to truly find out the extent of that individual's injuries (or ailments). On top of that, you're being dishonest, and occupying a spot that someone else needs more than you do. GAH.

I told her that if he's put in the waiting room it means he's well enough to wait & that if she didn't want to wait she could take him to a clinic. I don't know what happened after that because she stopped texting me ...

As a sidenote, what's Big Gulp?

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

As a sidenote, what's Big Gulp?

The huge 72oz drinks from 7-11.

[WellThatsOod]

I've been to the ER 4 times in the past 6 years. Only once did I not have to wait and that was because my at the time 4 year old had jumped off his bunk bed and hit his head on the other bed (full bottom twin top) and split his scalp open. He was covered in blood, I was covered in blood. It was terrifying, that was when I realized I could probably handle this.