Part 1 (as I am sure I will come up some more to do a separate post) :
The elderly person that fell and hit their head and looks totally fine and had no LOC(loss of consciousness) forgot to tell you they are on coumadin which you only realise after they were discharged without a CT.
The nurse that you need to give a med to a sick patient is always on break – and her partner is nowhere to be found.
The sickest patient is always put into the zone of the nurse who gets overwhelmed when she has to do an IV AND put a foley into a patient.
When a patient claims that their “doctor is supposed to meet them in the ER”, the aforementioned doctor is either totally unaware of the patient coming in or is now being covered by another one who knows nothing about the patient.
The most pain -in -the ass, over-consulting, slacker doctor is always the one I have to call at 2 am about a stable but needs-to-be-admitted patient and then demands that I call all sorts of consultants in to see their patient IMMEDIATELY.
The clinic gets “too busy” and sends over a dozen patients on the day where I have to intubate three patients nearly simultaneously.
The VIP, annoying, demanding, on-the-board-of-trustees’ wife comes in thinking something horrible is happening when in fact, it is all a bunch of crap but about a million dollars in tests have to be ordered.
The pregnant vaginal bleeder or inflamed haemorrhoids patient is put in the public hallway for evaluation.
The one guy who you really don’t want to let sign out AMA because he is having an MI demands to do so.
The x-ray viewing computer program breaks down at 2am right after you got a bad trauma patient.
When you add a blood test on to a patient’s labs, the nurse tells you that was the tube that was not drawn.
The EKG tech shoves the normal EKG’s into your face for you to view but leaves the ST elevation anterior wall MI cardiogram unceremoniously on the desk for you to see 10 minutes later.
You order a random, expensive blood test because you think the sub-specialist will want it, only to be told by him that it was totally unnecessary and then proceeds to scold you for ordering it. Later, a different doc of the same subspecialty gets angry at you because you did not order it.
The person that you have to call back at home because the night-time radiologist misread their CT that showed a ruptured appendix has a disconnected phone and an invalid address.
From the consultants — when you can meet the patient immediately they stop for coffee and a change of clothes in case they get admitted. When you’ve got 14 other people to see first they want you in emerg yesterday. Murphy’s law rules.
http://www.waittimes.blogspot.com
As the safety net that catches everyone as they fall through the many holes in our sad and broken health care system, you are the main ‘dumping’ ground in the ED. When these were began decades ago (perhaps a century ago) they probably never realized the consequences of such an idea and that it would be become overwhelmed by the all the problems of our complex modern society. An outdated, outmoded system is being asked to do something that was never envisioned in simpler days. It needs a complete overhaul that reflects modern realities and addresses the problems of modern medicine.
Haha, I like!
What the hell is with the picture?
It doesn’t even go with your post!
Remove it.
It’s a joke – “Murphy’s Law” states that something bad will always happen at the worst possible time. As in pic where Salam loses his car keys. Why can’t people lighten up. And by the way, I will decide when or when not to remove something.