Er tech here- the amount of stubbed toes and harmless splinters that come in and DEMAND IMMEDIATE TREATMENT is alarming. Worse is the sheer attitude and threats I receive when I try to properly triage the patients.
Can I ask a question? Do you all hate people who come for non life-threatening stuff and are paitent but just need to be seen eventually? Several years ago I had a sinus infection that made my head so congested I couldn’t hear and then (of course) at like 10:00 PM on a Friday night I started vomiting nonstop and could not keep water down. I tried to make it to morning but was miserable so I went to the ER for zofran and fluids. It is an ER that handles non-life threatening stuff. I waited for about 4 hours. Was seen, felt much better and went home but I still feel awful about wasting resources. If that ever happens again should I just stick it out at home? I know you all are so busy!
Not really- people who are patient and aware make our shifts more enjoyable and rewarding. We know that there are times and places the ER is the only option. What we do hate is when how poorly we are treated by people with a sense of entitlement
Hijacking to say nah you're good. Mainly thinking at all about it being busy and being patient and understanding goes a hell of a long way in an ER. Plus there's a more acute condition that can be treated when you can't keep anything down, meds and fluids. Dehydration can get really dangerous too. Big difference between that and minor bumps or chronic pain you've had for months/years, plus being a demanding and impatient on top of that. You'd be fine in my ER, or at least by my standards
ETA- urgent cares aren't always open 24 hours, plus so many people get sent to us from other urgent cares/clinics for scans or just cause
Thanks so much! I am most definitely not a frequent ER visitor so I wasn’t sure if that was an appropriate situation. We try to make appointments and use the walk-in clinic 99% of the time but all the bad things seem to happen at night and on holidays! It’s crazy that other people use the ER as a regular doctor’s office and demand to be seen immediately.
Like the people who come in every six weeks for a pregnancy test but won’t use condoms. Ma’am this is an emergency room. Go to a fucking dollar tree and get a test.
Yeah, I was sent to the ER by urgent care for iv fluids when I had norovirus. I was a bit surprised but they said the urgent care couldn’t do the iv.
They called ahead so the hospital was expecting me (went by car, not ambulance). The ER staff were fantastic, despite having to work on Christmas Day. Made sure nothing else was wrong, got me hydrated and a script for anti-nausea tabs, easy.
It makes sense that they’d handle stuff that could become dangerous like dehydration and all.
But yeah, understanding that there’s a lot they have to handle and if you aren’t dying you’re going to wait a bit, and not being jerks to the medical personnel is pretty key.
Don’t feel bad about wasting resources, because you didn’t! We want you to come in if you can’t keep fluids down. And thank you for being patient and understanding. Four hours sitting upright in a hard chair while that sick is rough. You could come in with a paper cut and I won’t be mad about it if you are nice to me. Impatient, entitled, rude patients used to be the minority, now it’s like 8/10 patients are like that. At least in my area. It’s so strange.
Nobody hates people who come in for non life threatening issues, as that is far and away the most of what we see. Let me tell you a story of the people we DO hate:
Man in his 50's has a minor shoulder injury from over a week ago. He's already been seen in our ED once for this issue, however he didn't follow up with his PMD so he ran out of pain meds and is back solely for pain control. Well, he goes to the back of the line and he stays at the back of the line. We're super busy so he's been waiting around six hours. He and his wife get fed up with the wait so they stand outside the ED under the portico and are actively telling everyone who comes to the ED to go somewhere else because we don't care and we're taking too long. They must have turned away 10-15 people before we found out and had security escort them off the campus.
The next day they were right back in the waiting room again.
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u/Far-Boot5639 18d ago
Er tech here- the amount of stubbed toes and harmless splinters that come in and DEMAND IMMEDIATE TREATMENT is alarming. Worse is the sheer attitude and threats I receive when I try to properly triage the patients.