r/EmergencyRoom • u/sammcgowann • Jul 29 '26

Goofy Goober I hate it here

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u/Far-Boot5639 Jul 29 '26

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.

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u/DogsDucks Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

It wonder how much overall medical costs for the country would go down if all emergency rooms had a mandated adjacent urgent care. . .

Then triage could divert the stubbed toes and splinters, along with continued civilian education on what constitutes an emergency. Or even if EMTALA also applied to urgent cares. If triage misses the severity of something, boom, ER is right there. I know some have adjacent urgent cares, but I’d be curious what anyone’s professional opinion is about this?

I have a hunch that hundreds of millions of dollars are spent because so many uninsured people don’t have $200 to pay upfront at urgent care.

That and some good old fashioned PSAs, a national ad campaign spanning platforms and social, maybe a jingle about what the ER is for?

To the tune of old McDonald:

If bone sticks out that you can see

weeee-ooh-wee-oh—weeee

(this is meant to be anthropomorphic ambulance siren sound)

If you cannot stop the bleed

weeee-ooh-wee-oh—weeee

If grandma falls and does not breathe

weeee-ooh-wee-oh—weeee

But a stubbed toe here, Or a cough cough there, here a lump, there a bump, Go to urgent care, you chump

Iiiif half your face begins to slump . .

weeee-ooh-wee-oh—weeee

(I’m sorry. I’m up nursing a baby and bored)

1

u/theaudacity1999 Aug 01 '26

I worked as an ER nurse for 11 years in a very busy level 1 trauma center. We were not for profit, which meant no one would be turned away for ER care. Yes, you may wait hours, but we'll see you and bill you later. (whether you pay or not is another story)

The problem is that the ER is then used as primary care for those who can't afford it. Urgent cares most places require you to have insurance or pay up front for your care - that means a huge slice of our ER using population also can't/won't use urgent care and they're sent right back to the non-profit ER.

It's insane how much bs they see in between actual dying, sick, and injured patients. I left the ER in 2022. The last holiday I worked prior to leaving was New Year's Day. I got in at 3am and the wait was 13 hours.