What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

And did you have to treat them?

I am just curious. Your stories always seem to either crack me up or shake my head in amazement.

Thanks for sharing ?

    kids

    kids

    1 Article; 2,334 Posts

Oh, and no offence, but maybe Hot Tamales aren't the greatest choice of foodstuffs with your recent medical history. But, that's really none of my business.
No offence taken, I could have been more specific...the vomiting stopped 6 weeks ago.

Lady came in complaining she was allergic to her bra. When she presented the bra from her purse it looked like she had it for years- no elastic or spandex left to cause a reaction! Discharge instructions from Doc read: Buy a new bra:rotfl:

My favorite has to be the LOL who called 911 for 'belly pain' because the City of Chicago would pay for the ambulance "So I don't have to pay for no taxi, neither". She's always constipated!

She loved her tap water enemas, too - looked for the newest nurse every time because the ones who have seen her will get a Fleet's instead. :uhoh21:

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Stitchie said:
But did he find God? :rotfl: :rotfl:

I asked him that -- but I don't remember the answer. It's been 23 years!

JUSTYSMOM said:
and do you have to treat them?

I am just curious. Your stories always seem to either crack me up or shake my head in amazement.

Thanks for sharing ?

Gee, it's hard to limit it to ONE thing!

The person who came in wanting to have his blackheads removed.

The woman who came in wanting to have her earlobe sewn back together after she caught her earing with her hairbrush and ripped it out - 10 years before!

The 2 city guys who came in during hunting season, one w/ buckshot in the rear, who insisted that the deer were shooting back.

And I've been out of the ER for 10 years. There are times I miss it, a lot.

Savvy

Pt brought in tonite BY AMBULANCEfor head lice!

coffeedrinker said:
Pt brought in tonite BY AMBULANCEfor head lice!

OK, that's just abusing the system...shouldn't there be a line drawn somewhere that says "If you are this lazy that you cannot figure this problem out for yourself, or least call before coming in to get RN advice for a dumb@$$ problem, you should pay full freight for the ambulance, the ER staff and the guy w/the tib/fib fx who drove himself here, waited in Triage and never once c/o pain!"

That's just wrong. That's all it is.

This will really get your goat -the women's shelter sent the woman in by ambulance, and dropped off more people in our waiting room (mother and 2 children) infected with head lice! There has to be a way to stop this nonsense of abusing the system. Needless to say, they probably waited 2-21/2 hours to be seen. Given dc instructions on how to use quell, and sent back!

SWFlorida said:
These trivial complaints are generally not covered by any form of insurance and even medicaid is cracking down on non emergent visits. The patients are usually very angry when they receive a bill for $600.00 in the mail. More and more hospitals are becomming more and more aggressive at collecting on these bills also. The way to treat under educated consumers who utilize a resource for the wrong reasons is to hit them in the pocket book. Paying a huge bill will get them to think about visiting their primary care physician first or trying home treatments. People just dont want to think any more. They'd rather go crying to "Mommy" aka the "ER" than to try to take care of it themselves. We've created a very dependent society.

Well, there's a lot of truth to what you say, but the really sad thing is that an awful lot of these people just don't have a primary physician, and this is their only entry into the health care system. We have all these ridiculous things being brought to the ER, and we also have the people coming in who should have had medical treatment long ago, but have no MD and no insurance and no $ for health care.. Pretty sad state of affairs.

Savvy

JWaldron said:
Well, there's a lot of truth to what you say, but the really sad thing is that an awful lot of these people just don't have a primary physician, and this is their only entry into the health care system. We have all these ridiculous things being brought to the ER, and we also have the people coming in who should have had medical treatment long ago, but have no MD and no insurance and no $ for health care.. Pretty sad state of affairs.

Savvy

Well, I don't disagree with what you say, but I think it is more than not having access to a primary care provider. I live in a very rural area in the deep south, and even here we have a Public Health Department, a federally funded clinic for the indigent and working poor as well as a community mental health center.

Unfortunately, I think many folks come to the ER for other reasons:

- Convenience (no need to make an appointment, and where else can you get your kids' runny noses checked out, your vag bleeding evaluated and your mom's migraine treated all at the same time and place? I mean, what ER nurse hasn't heard "While I'm here....")

- Ignorance

- Entertainment

- Avoidence (you can't hardly go back to your pcp for more Lorcet when you just got your 'script filled yesterday)

- The system: some people must have that dreaded doctor's excuse to go back to work after only one sick day and if you live in an area with no urgent care, what can they do? Also, I think we've taught people over the past few generations to rely on the system instead of thinking for themselves (so of course you bring you kids to the doc if they vomit once).

- Lack of funds (like we're not going to ask them to pay and then follow-up on it)

I think the answer is going to depend on a change in the whole health care system, and pardon my cynical attitude, but that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

RainbowSkye said:
Well, I don't disagree with what you say, but I think it is more than not having access to a primary care provider. I live in a very rural area in the deep south, and even here we have a Public Health Department, a federally funded clinic for the indigent and working poor as well as a community mental health center.

Unfortunately, I think many folks come to the ER for other reasons:

- Convenience (no need to make an appointment, and where else can you get your kids' runny noses checked out, your vag bleeding evaluated and your mom's migraine treated all at the same time and place? I mean, what ER nurse hasn't heard "While I'm here....")

- Ignorance

- Entertainment

- Avoidence (you can't hardly go back to your pcp for more Lorcet when you just got your 'script filled yesterday)

-the system: some people must have that dreaded doctor's excuse to go back to work after only one sick day and if you live in an area with no urgent care, what can they do? Also, I think we've taught people over the past few generations to rely on the system instead of thinking for themselves (so of course you bring you kids to the doc if they vomit once).

- Lack of funds (like we're not going to ask them to pay and then follow-up on it)

I think the answer is going to depend on a change in the whole health care system, and pardon my cynical attitude, but that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

Hi Rainbow,

I don't think that it's a cynical attitude at all, but a realistic one. Yes we have created a dependent society w/no personal responsiblity encourage. Really, calling 911 for head lice is such an abuse of the system and such a downright stupid reason that the paramedics should have the right to refuse something if it isn't truly life threatening. Phone calls to the ER's are still free and any nurse would rather answer a nurse advice call rather than putting up with a head lice 'emergency'. Part of the problem, IMO, is this McDonald's mentality that TV shows, etc., have created. I want what I want when I want it, and I want it all now. It isn't fair to the kid who got hit by a car or the grandmother of 12 who's having a silent MI or that person who walked in to Triage and gasped "I think I'm having a heart attack". And codes on the ER cart faster than you can say "EKG".

And it's really not fair to the Triage nurse, who has to listen to these people who c/o 'waiting' too long for their head lice emergency in the Triage area. That's why security is there in front -- since the fine folks who utilize our McER have been known to be violent when 'precious' is c/o vomiting once yet running around in bare feet eating chips and drinking coke.

There's a running joke in our ER about the sickest people being the most considerate. The ones who are well enough to complain about every little thing are too healthy to be in the hospital in the first place and must be there to serve some other purpose, whether it's entertainment or a mental health issue or drug-seeking.

I'm not talking about those who have become among the many w/o health care. I'm talking about healthy people who aren't sick in the first place. It doesn't appear to be a regional problem but truly an issue that has a large impact on all of us, since our tax money is paying for this nonsense. We have our own collection of FF and just plain abuse the system folks here in Chicago, too.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled post. Didn't mean to hijack, just vent a little.

Specializes in Government.

This was more of a patient education problem, but still...I worked nights on a head injury floor in a large pediatric hospital for 10 years. Our night time admits were house overflow.

Over and over again we'd get normal infant admits...kids would look great, hydrated, healthy, etc. Problem? You know that jerky, nerves- not- quite- connected movement that infants make when they stretch or yawn? People were assuming their kid was having a seizure. And they'd bring the child in at 1 am and insist that he/she should be admitted. We'd explain to the Parents what the ER already explained. When the sun came up then the pediatric neuro would explain it again and send the kid home.

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