Emergency Room Abuse

Ok, I've Alluded to this one a couple of times already so lets go ahead and finish it and put this one to bed for a bit.





I am taking patients to task for this one. You want honesty? Here it is.





For those of you that don't know the E.R. is one of the most abused and inefficient components of our medical system. Here is some of how it works on a day to day basis....the truth....really....no shit.





Chronic drug abusers. The bane of existance for E.R. staff. The leeches literally make a full time job out of floating from E.R. to E.R. with completely bullshit complaints looking for pain medicines (opiates etc). I am not exaggerating here. They come in at regular intervals with complaints of chronic back pain, ill defined stomach pain, those world famous migraines that usually occur on the weekend (aint it funny how that happens), and a plethora of excuses that are obvious lies. They will hit up each E.R. in a repeating succession scooping meds and prescriptions as they go. You know damn well when they are in with their 15th or 20th visit of the year with the same old complaints that have no explanation after ten to twenty thousand dollars of MRIs, CTs, blood tests, xrays, and consultations that they are FOS...and not in the literal sense. These folks are often recognized easily by staff that work in other E.R.'s. Before you go whining about confidentiality remember we are talking about seasoned drug abusers that use your tax dollars and the physician's time to get their fix.



Now lets look specifically at the 18-28 or so age bracket. These are the 10 mph fender benders that come in at the behest of their ambulance chasing lawyer or because some wise old sage in the family that had an ambulance chaser tells them to. They have "pain" , often neck or back. It is exquisitely tender to the lightest of touches...however they can laugh and talk on their cell phone, and when distracted seem to have full range of motion. When confronted with this they often admit to being "ok" and just "you know...wantin' to get checked out...in case sumthin comes up later". Taking Tylenol and/or Motrin at home is out of the question. Why?...."cause I didn't have none, and didn't have the money to buy it". Now this inevitably comes from the cell phone using designer clothes dressing manicure showing nice car driving cigarette smoking folks that have it so tough in life. This is a reason to have an "emergency" visit??????

This same group is infamous for the 1:3o A.M. dribbling penis/stinky vagina "emergency visit". Typical scenario is something like this:

Itchy penis dude comes in at 1:37 A.M. with a 2 wk history of "green stuff" coming from his penis. When asked why he waited so long, and oh yeah...WHY IN THE HELL IS IT NOW URGENT AT 1:37 IN THE A.M. AFTER 2 WEEKS OF FOUL GREEN PENILE DISCHARGE?, Rico Suave gives the classic shrug accompanied by Idunno(all one word).

Now here is where it gets really good. Without fail his girlfriend comes in at 3:02 A.M. and states that her boyfriend told her he had V.D. and she needs to go to the emergency room and get checked. She, by the way does no better explaining her urgency and why the heck she couldn't wait till morning since for 1 week at least "it's been kinda stankin down there".I AM NOT JOKING..this is really how it happens over and over and over.......



Now we get to the baby's mama. The baby has had a fever for 4 days. How high? Didn't check it..just knows it was real high. Tylenol or Motrin? No freakin way....see above....same stupid excuse from same people. Call the pediatrician? Didn't know the number, or they were just too crowded(verses 2:27 A.M......IN THE FREAKIN E.R.) Now the path diverges one of 2 ways here...either the child is awake, eating, drinking, shatting and generally being merry (MOST often the case), or is so toxic and dishrag limp the first phone call is to a helicopter to get them to a major medical center. Then there is the "my baby rolled of the _____(just fill in the blank with sofa chair table steps or whatever) and bumped his head. Did it knock little precious out? "No". Did they act normal after they quit crying? "Yeah". They been eating drinking playing shatting? "Oh yes". And you are here because....?????? " I just want him/her checked out". Hmmmm....emergency huh?....

How about the emergent asthma attack for the poor child whose mother smokes like an old Chevy Vega? True emergency but no one wants to tell momma she is the root cause of all of this. And oh yeah chuckles....smoking outside and coming back in is about the same.



Lets don't forget the Mama aint actin right crowd. The absolute best of these are the absentee children that drop in once every 18 mos and are shocked at Mama's mental/physical state. They demand she be seen, treated, and admitted(never mind the other 6 hospitalizations in the last 18 months as she steadily declines).



And of course the "i got sinus/I got the flu" crowd. High fevers, body aches, congested nose and sore throat are all symptoms of a VIRUS people!!!! This is not an emergency!!!! Quit being such a damn baby. We all get at least one every year and they always go away. NO, antibiotics will not help so stop getting pissed when you don't get them. Tylenol and/or Motrin at home???......ah what the hell we know the answer to that, right? Call your regular doct.....fogetaboudit.



Now for those of you interested enough to really think about this realize all of this stupidity and madness is going on at the same time your grandma has decided to quit breathing, your dad is having crushing chest pain, and your little boy has an obviously fractured arm. All of that B.S. has to be waded through all day in midst of the true emergent patients.



Responsibilities?



If doctors quit writing the pain medicines to the leeches just to get them out quickly it would become a self limiting reaction that would fizzle out relatively fast.



If we had any sort of notion of responsibility and accountability for our children they wouldnt think it was normal to have early, unprotected sexual intercourse and even more acceptable to clog up the E.R. with that crap at 1:37 A.M. and 3:02 A.M. just to avoid the crowds at the health dept. or primary doctors office, and avoid paying a bill.



If it were not so easy for the personal injury sharks/lawyers to squeak money out of every fender bender, slip and fall or other minor inconvenience the shiftless excuses for young people wouldnt find it worth their time to clog up the E.R. (old people too just to be fair and honest) and the ambulance chasers would have to get a real job.



If these parents( and that's a damn stretch of the term in many cases) had any real care or concern about their children, any sense of responsibility for taking care of them, any accountability for the GIANT E.R. bill generated to "just get checked out" it might change a little.



If most people had to actually pay for their E.R. visits the sale of over the counter Tylenol and Motrin would set records.



There is a little of the truth for you...no exaggeration at all.

If any of the afore mentioned people is you it was strictly coincidental, as only generalized examples were used. But if you did match any of the above scenarios you oughta be ashamed..SO STOP IT.

Truth.....still want it?