ER Stories Real Life Tales from the Emergency Room

ER Stories

March 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am

Another Possible Winner

winner-win.jpg

…..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!

Canadian Pharmacy
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9
  • 1

    What a nut case!

    Drama Mama on March 11th, 2008
  • 2

    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.

    drsam on March 12th, 2008
  • 3

    “Possible” winner? This one wins hands down.
    You need to put your Cocoa Puffs picture on this entry.

    WhiteCoat on March 12th, 2008
  • 4

    No she was not paying of course. She was “100% charity care” - free, courtesy of our hospital.

    admin on March 12th, 2008
  • 5

    Lovely.

    EE on March 14th, 2008
  • 6

    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

    Steve on March 15th, 2008
  • 7

    Thankfully she took a bus.

    TK on March 15th, 2008
  • 8

    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?

    Sandy Goliver on April 23rd, 2009
  • 9

    I forgot to add that I really like your site! :-)

    Sandy Goliver on April 23rd, 2009

 

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