.....That's at Burger King, not the Emergency Department.
A 64 year old male came in to "have his cataracts taken out." He thought we just had a eye doctor sitting around in the ED waiting to take care of him. When I told him we didn't, he was upset because he would have to make an appointment with an eye doctor, wait for the appointment, and pay money for it! The audacity!
I have had multiple similar encounters with people wanting there breast lumps taken out and diagnosed for cancers, colonoscopies, and even skin biopsies. Emergency department folks, emergencies only please.
-ER Doc
18 comments:
They don't "take out" cataracts anymore. They do lens replacements.
Amazing what people think the ER is for.......simply stupidly amazing.
You should have listened to the man and taken out his cataracts! A little tetracaine and an 18g needle attached to suction should do it ;)
Did he drive there? If so must not have been bad enough yet.
i didnt ask if he drove. i just discharged him
You don't know how many times I have had to tell patients that in the ER, we are just trying to get them stable, not necessarily fix their problem, breast lump, cataract etc.
You sounded lonely...so, Hi!
Annnnd, yes, this was an excellent post, should i go tell ERP? ;)
If only they were charged for such bogus visits, maybe they'd learn to not abuse the ER!
Or maybe they should all get a digital rectal exam regardless of their problem. That might teach them not to visit except for emergencies...
Buzz kill. And to think I was going to come in for a face lift.
SkullCandy
It's pretty easy to understand why the man was confused...
"The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America," he said. "After all, you just go to an emergency room." - George W. Bush - 2007.
"By the way, there’s no one denied health care in America. There are 47 million people who don’t have health insurance, but no American is denied health care in America." Tom DeLay - 2007, referring to Emergency Rooms
I don't intend to say anything about health care itself - just that the idea that ER is a place for routine health care.
As ardell reminded us they take out the cataract infected lens and put in a new lens. and OMG they have to go through testing and then schedule sx. And thats only if the Dr. thinks there ready. The joys of working for an eye doctor
Tell him they only teach eye doctors how to take them out from the front, but you'd be willing to try from the back.
thank you calladus. thanks to these dumb ass politicians (and not a coincidence both are republicans) thats what a lot of people think
er doc
I would have offered to do it for him - with a 10 blade and see what his response was.
Yeah, I've had a patient tell me when I discharged her that she wanted her free meal before she left.
dCOLONOSCOPIES????? Don't they realize they need a prep for that. As a GI tech I can say unprepped or poorly prepped colonoscopies don't go well!
Anon, I think that's the point of threatening to perform one.
I love your blog and it certainly makes one think about why they go to the ER and how stressed out the medical personnel who work in the ER are.
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