…..for the world’s most stupid chief complaints for an ER visit. A lady came in today for “I want better discharge instructions”. Yes, indeed, she registered and was triaged just so that she could demand a better pre-printed copy of her recent discharge instructions. She had been to our ER a few days prior and was treated for chronic cellulitis and lymphedema and was discharged on an antibiotic and a painkiller. She was upset that the instructions did not give specifics on side effects of the drugs (which I could see were on the printed instructions she got from the pharmacy that filled the Rx’s! ). She was upset because she had a few loose bowel movements and nausea (common with both drugs) but that “no one told her that could happen”. I showed her the print outs from the pharmacy but she demanded that WE print out some instructions! She felt fine otherwise – in fact the cellulitis was better! She had an appointment in clinic the next day – but felt it necessary to register and waste everyone’s time when we would have just printed out the instructions for her – or would have given her verbally over the phone! And to top it off, today was a disaster (as most Monday’s are) we were on divert all day but still had 10-20 in the waiting room all day – thus going through everything and doing the paper work was a giant PITA (pain in the A**). In retrospect, I think I should have given her instructions for another drug……HALDOL!
What a nut case!
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and hazard a guess that she is not paying for this visit.
I’m gonna guess that she has a third-party payer such as medicaid, medicare, or less likely private insurance.
Somehow I doubt she paid for this out of pocket.
Please correct me if I’m wrong here.
“Possible” winner? This one wins hands down.
You need to put your Cocoa Puffs picture on this entry.
No she was not paying of course. She was “100% charity care” – free, courtesy of our hospital.
Lovely.
Did she come in by ambulance? This is a case that some do-gooder could get ‘ahold of and make a stink. You, the hospital, the staff, et al obviously didn’t explain EVERYTHING to this lady/woman. You infringed on her rights as a patient!!! Wonder what the “joint commision” would say about that!
Oh wait, what about my rights as a tax paying hard working soul. Do I really have to see my hard earned dollar going to pay for such tripe as this????
Steve
Thankfully she took a bus.
For BS like that, you should be able to kick their a$$e$ right out the door! Sorry, I just have no sympathy for stupidity like that woman showed. What the heck is wrong with people?
I forgot to add that I really like your site!