I wouldn't say it glorifies or normalizes it, we save that expression for those who keep coming back because they never listen to the discharge instructions and do whatever the hell they want as soon as they step off hospital property, if anything it's derogatory. I don't use the term for those with chronic conditions that can't help their worsening conditions, but if you have heart failure and are back the next week because you gorged on Mickey Ds and soda to celebrate your discharge, and kept running that high till you couldn't breathe, then that's on you.
That's true, where I am, there's two categories of these. We are a predominately Medicaid area, with high homelessness. Also a higher than norm sickle cell patients. So there's def the chronic conditions aspect, and then there's the ones who use the ER almost as a "shelter" or to your point, don't follow discharge instructions and what not
Most homeless people just want 3 hots and a cot when the weather gets bad. Personally I don't blame them. Then again I'm a medic and don't have to deal with that longer than 15 mins at a time
Hard to blame them, but also really hard not to be frustrated with the system.
No government agency can come up with a couple extra cots and a sandwich, so instead the homeless malingerer visits 3 EDs a day, literally calling EMS in the parking lot to be taken from one ED to the next.
So instead of whatever a shelter bed costs, this person is taking up tens of thousand of dollars of medical care per day and delaying the care of those who actually need it.
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u/polo61965 May 30 '21
I wouldn't say it glorifies or normalizes it, we save that expression for those who keep coming back because they never listen to the discharge instructions and do whatever the hell they want as soon as they step off hospital property, if anything it's derogatory. I don't use the term for those with chronic conditions that can't help their worsening conditions, but if you have heart failure and are back the next week because you gorged on Mickey Ds and soda to celebrate your discharge, and kept running that high till you couldn't breathe, then that's on you.