I'm just trying to understand why people think they way they do about ER's...?

Question

I work in an ER in a small town. We are a branch of a much larger hosptial in a larger neighboring town. We see people every night with the diagonsis of pharyngitis, or sinusitus, or otitis meida, or conjunctivitis. (In lay terms thats a sore throat, or stuffy nose, or ear ache, or pink eye.) These people get quite upset that they sometimes have to wait longer because people come in with chest pain (and they are having a heart attack) or their arm is bent in a place it isn't supposed to be bent, or a woman only 22 weeks pregnant and in labor and these people are seen before them. What is their definition of an Emergency Room? We are not a doctor's office or the local county Health Department. And then when they check out without insurance they are shocked that they are asked to pay the bill. What is the mentality here? I just don't get it...

Pilgrim: I work 7days on and 7days off, 7pm to 7am, Thank goodness I'm on day 5 now.

I should note, it is against the law for anyone in any ER to ask you about payment ability or insurance prior to being seen by a doctor. This is to prevent people from being treated differently based on ability to pay. Also, I have seen people become callous while working in an ER. They tend to lose their compassion, unfortunate, but true.

Answer 1

It can all be summed up in two words: Civic Responsibility. It is sad that the vast majority of human beings on this planet assume that their problems outweigh the needs of others. It is naive to presume that the average patient with pharyngitis etc... that presents in an ER is going to have any idea of what triage is considering that they are wasting the valuable time and resources of a small ER with complaints that, as you stated, should be cared for in the family doctors office. We just have to grin and bear it and remember why we decided to become care givers in the first place. To triage and give care to the best of our abilities to those in need and based on the degree of need at the time that the patient presents themselves. Good luck and remember, there is always the weekend to recover......

Answer 2

Personally, I've always been patient in Emergency rooms and understanding when more critical patients get seen first. That said, a lot of people don't have insurance or health care of any kind. It's sad but some people use hospital emergency rooms as their primary care system. It's a reflection of the poor state of health care resources in the US, millions of people are uninsured and in many places there are no options for them. And it's extremely difficult to apply for certain state or federal programs, like Medicare/Medicaid. My daughter was born in Texas. There was a brief time after my insurance ran out from my job that I left upon having her, and the time my husband's enrollment period came open for him to add her onto his. Texas advertises this healthy kids program like crazy, they have flyers all over, it's supposedly an "easy and affordable" insurance for kids to make sure all kids are healthy. Yeah right, we applied for it and the process was so tedious, they made mistakes on our application, they lost it, they couldn't decide what category we fit into, they said we made too much money to qualify even though the ads said it was for every income level and your payments are based on how much you make. It was ridiculous and took months and thankfully in the mean-time my daughter was able to get enrolled under my husband's plan, then he joined the Army and we no longer have to worry about that. In fact, some people consider joining the military just to get those benefits for their family. I've seen ER staff who treated uninsured patients as if they were lower-class citizens. I'm not saying all ER staff, but some training in compassion and the correct way to speak to and treat other human beings is something that some of these ER staffs need. Honestly, some people who work in ER's are excellent, but then there are those who walk around with crappy attitudes, treat patients rudely, act exasperated if you bring in your child with a fever (yes this has happened to me, after I called and they told me to bring her in with a fever as high as hers was, when I got there they acted like I was a stupid mom and were very condescending to me). I'm not saying necessarily you, but for those who don't like working in the ER and can't have respect for ALL patients who walk in the door, then find another job.