Don't come to the hospital if you don't want treatment!

[ReneeA]

Have you ever asked the people, kindly not combatively, why they are there? What they want???


I was forced to the hospital against my wishes. For no solid reason based in reality, just "you ran out of time" reasons. Oh and I was lied to about the reasons for being there. And didn't realize it until it was way too late.

It is REALLY too bad none of the nurses or doctors stopped to just say "why are you here?" Because if they had done that, I could have answered, we could have figured out that it was not the best place. They could have figured out why I didn't want them to DO anything to me, wanted them to just leave me the heck alone, and I could have figured out that they were not interested in NOT bugging me. If they'd asked that, or if I could have worked out a way to just STOP everything and talk to them....things would have been quite different.




Aw, poor things....

I do not, no, I CANnot, feel sorry for ER employees who get patients who maybe don't want the treatment. If someone doesn't want what you have to offer, just take a breath, and just let them be. Move on to the next person. Maybe they'll want what you have to offer.

Hmmm...I graduate from nursing school in a month and have been at 6 different hospitals for clinicals. Everywhere I've went, nurses and doctors ask that very question..."what brought you in?"

I work on an ICU and it's always something really serious or longterm that bring my patients in and we still discuss it with them (their feelings, etc).

I've never heard of it *not* being asked. Apparently you've always gotten really poor medical attention according to your posts.

 

[C.Ann]

......ER professionals really get ticked when their told how to do their job.

And even more so in the minority of the cases where these professionals actually "don't" know how to do their jobs.. They are no different than any other professionals - there are good ones and there are bad ones..

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

And even more so in the minority of the cases where these professionals actually "don't" know how to do their jobs.. They are no different than any other professionals - there are good ones and there are bad ones..

They are human.....

 

[C.Ann]

They are human.....

Exactly.. Most know what they are doing, but not all..

 

[lsyorke]

It is REALLY too bad none of the nurses or doctors stopped to just say "why are you here?" Because if they had done that, I could have answered, we could have figured out that it was not the best place.

Or you could have told them "why you were there". I find it hard to believe that no one asked you why you were there. This is the first question asked by ER nurses, it's called triage..without that information there is nothing for them to do for you.

 

[arminnie]

So instead of staying in the hospital, where he can be monitered to see if he develops a full obstruction and may require surgery, he ran off because he would rather eat that Big Mac and then vomit it up.

Years ago I was in the hospital when I heard screaming coming from the next room. The guy had been admitted for pancreatitis and had snuck down to the cafeteria to eat french fries. Yes he was in agony for those stupid fries.

I've been in ER a zillion times with elderly relatives (and even myself on occassion). It is always "interesting" to listen to what is going on around me. Forget about privacy in those tiny rooms with curtains.

The nurses will roll their eyes with me at the patients who come in stating they are in pain - but are allergic to everything except morphine. And then the really sick alcoholic patients who realize that they are not going to get anything to drink while hospitalized so they walk.

I have friends who worked at a psych hospital. It's even worse there. The same patients would come in at the end of the months when they had no money and claim they were suicidal. They were cured the minute their "check" came in. And then there were the drug dealers who checked in for "rehab" to escape the other drug dealers they had just stolen from or to hide from DEA.

 

[laurie31]

The same patients would come in at the end of the months when they had no money and claim they were suicidal. They were cured the minute their "check" came in. And then there were the drug dealers who checked in for "rehab" to escape the other drug dealers they had just stolen from or to hide from DEA.

Oh wow, now that's a WHOLE other catagory! The ones who use the hospital as a shelter. They come in wanting meal vouchers, gas money, cab fare, bus tickets, etc. and yes, they KNOW how to work the system. The worst are the ones who come in on Friday afternoon with a dehydrated baby and then have some excuse why they can't stay (so the baby goes to the nursery instead of a room) and then they don't come back until Sunday, when the baby is all better and they've had their weekend fun without having to hire a sitter. And yes, the "suicidal" ones really work the system too. Now I'm NOT making light of anyone who is actually having thoughts of suicide, and we sadly have plenty of those, but the ones who know they can just SAY they're thinking of suicide and win themselves a bed. I don't know how to stop it, because you can't risk not treating someone who really IS suicidal...but it's such a waste of resources.

 

[honugirl]

Yeah, that one isn't the patient's fault. It's more a system problem. In the same catagory, there are the "stupid pages."

For example, I had a patient who DEMANDED cough syrup in their IV. Yes, a pneumonia patient. (No, we do NOT give cough suppressant to someone sick enough with pneumonia to be hospitalized. That is a BAD THING). But not only did this person want the cough suppressant that could have made them sicker, they did not want to have to TASTE it, so they wanted it IV. I tried and tried to explain that this was not possible, you can't put cough syrup in an IV but they DEMANDED I call the physician and get an order. So I finally had to call (because I'm a lousy liar - I couldn't tell the patient I'd called when I hadn't) and apologize all over the place for bothering the MD for something so ridiculous and then listening to her say, "They want WHAT??" Then, after I told the patient I'd talked to the doctor about it, they called their private MD *at home* to ask the same thing. Wow.

Are you serious? Cough suppressant in the IV? Dang, I hate syrup medication, but even I'm not that stupid! Wow! Believe me, there are times I wish all my meds could come through IV, they seem to work better (phenergan, zofran and hydrocortisone are 3 that come to mind) but that's ridiculous!

Loved it when I had a blood clot in my leg after ankle reconstruction and I went to the ER because it was getting worse. I couldn't drive, so I had to take a taxi there. Had I been a recipient of social services, that would have been paid for... I had to pay $20 each way! But the best part is, I got there, they ultrasound the leg, give me some crap painkiller and discharge me, why you ask? Because it was St. Patty's Day and they had to make room for all the drunks that were going to be coming in...

Thanks Laurie31. I hope we make your jobs easier! The dehydrated baby thing that you mentioned makes me ill. Wow. Awesome parents! You have to have a license to own a dog, drive a car and carry a gun, but any idiot can be a parent...

Patients like me have learned that we have to speak up because if we don't, we don't get appropriate care most of the time. Most docs are not well versed in what we need (flaw in the med school system, old school thinking/teaching has led to this). People used to put "give stress dose steroids" on their medic alert bracelets until we started realizing that most emergency medical staff dosen't know what that means! So we had to start putting exact dosages in our info. Our labs are also ones that can't be repeated if they get screwed up, it's not like a CBC or an electrolyte panel, those can be repeated, but you can't redo a cortisol or an ACTH so we get a little freaky when phlebotomists start grabbing for the wrong tube...

 

[golfgal]

You'd be very surprised...

I see tons of people who are noncompliant at home, who come into the hospital with a legitimate emergent illness. Once they become 'stable', they don't want this, they won't take that, they want double meal portions, and if we don't discharge them fast enough or follow their treatment plan, they leave AMA (against medical advice). Then 2 weeks later they are back with the same problem. It happens all the time!

I think it's lack of education that makes people apathetic about their care. Not even 'school education', but health education. Health education is severely lacking in this country and very few people seem to care.

Or worse yet, those that have "self-educated" on every medical topic so they THINK they know what they need--or how this treatment causes this disease or that medicine is made with bat poop so they won't take it--all because of some spam on the Internet.

 

[Disney Doll]

Have you ever asked the people, kindly not combatively, why they are there? What they want???


I was forced to the hospital against my wishes. For no solid reason based in reality, just "you ran out of time" reasons. Oh and I was lied to about the reasons for being there. And didn't realize it until it was way too late.

It is REALLY too bad none of the nurses or doctors stopped to just say "why are you here?" Because if they had done that, I could have answered, we could have figured out that it was not the best place. They could have figured out why I didn't want them to DO anything to me, wanted them to just leave me the heck alone, and I could have figured out that they were not interested in NOT bugging me. If they'd asked that, or if I could have worked out a way to just STOP everything and talk to them....things would have been quite different.




Aw, poor things....

I do not, no, I CANnot, feel sorry for ER employees who get patients who maybe don't want the treatment. If someone doesn't want what you have to offer, just take a breath, and just let them be. Move on to the next person. Maybe they'll want what you have to offer.

Unfortunately, if someone is seriously ill, and they come to your ER, you sort of have to do something. There's all sorts of rules and regulations about that sort of thing. Really, the easiest thing would be if you don't want treatment, don't come and make sure everyone you know knows that you don't want to go to a ER no matter what. And I am quite amazed that no one ever asked you why you were there. That is usually the first question out of my mouth..."why did you come to the hospital today?".

bumbershoot, I know you have a very low opinion of healthcare in general based on your past experiences for which I am sorry. But I have said it before and I will say it again, most healthcare people don't go into it for the money (not that great), the glory (not too much glory in general), the hours (they stink usually), or the fashionable clothing (not much one can do with scrubs). We also don't wake up in the morning thinking "Let's see who I can harm, kill or really tick off today".

 

[crashbb]

Aw, poor things....

I do not, no, I CANnot, feel sorry for ER employees who get patients who maybe don't want the treatment. If someone doesn't want what you have to offer, just take a breath, and just let them be. Move on to the next person. Maybe they'll want what you have to offer.

Meanwhile these people are using up resources and making the wait times for those people who actually need/want help that much longer.

Why didn't you just leave the ER? If you were perfectly fine and didn't need any medical intervention, you must have been well enough to walk out of the ER. Why waste everyone else's time?

 

[surfergirl602]

my firend had chrohnes really bad and in college she was really sick. she would end up in the ER and they would send her home. One time they wanted to admit her into the psych ward! She knew what was wrong with her, what had to be done, etc, but they wouldn't listen. She refused medical treatment, wouldn't let them touch her until her parents showed up, they took her back home and she ended up having emergency surgery on thanksgiving day and I think it was 6 inches of her instestine removed. She's been through the ringer with hospitals with drs that don't listen. I can't believe the nightmares she's told me. Crazy.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My only "bad" ER visit of record....and I use "bad" loosely, I was simply mortified at what they insisted upon...

I passed out in my sorority house on a Friday night around midnight.

Evidently that was grounds for testing my BAL and testing me for drugs. B/c sorority house=passed out college student=drunk druggie, right?


I was so annoyed, but a little too out of it to stand my ground to refuse such craziness.

What ticked me off was I was in that hospital earlier that day for oral surgery--I can understand if the dental school and hospital systems aren't connected....

But the puffy cheeks, extreme amount of gauze in my mouth and the insane amount of blood crusty combined with the lack of any smell of alcohol--might have been just a teensy clue that I was telling the truth.

Of course everthing came back negative. But I was so mad b/c they wouldn't let me refuse anything b/c the only explanation for my condition was drunkeness and drugs. I was livid--but really too weak to convey that.


The reason I passed out was b/c that day I was extremely nervous about oral surgery and slept to not have to worry about it. By the time I was ready to get up, it was too late to eat, so I went and had my surgery. We returned to the sorority house at dinner and I ate what little my mouth could tolerate and then had my pain meds.

I got up at midnight and my sisters were replenishing my ice and for some strange reason I decided to follow them and collapse.

However--ER didn't care. I am sure they were erring on the side of caution, but it was more that they were bullying me and calling me a liar and I didn't appreciate that one bit.

Now I did have to use that ER again 3 years later for a UTI that got crazy bad and I couldn't wait until the clinic opened. (lost my ability to go). I had to be catheterized b/c I had to go so bad but could not. I was treated very well on that visit.

I have used an ER 2 or 3 other times in my life for myself and the experience were as good as could be given the circumstances that I was there.

I used it one time for my DD who got 2nd degree burns on her toes for scalding water accident at my moms house. I gotta say--quickest treatment we ever received, which makes me feel horrible b/c that was a sign of how badly she had been injured.

But to this day--Shands hospital and them testing me for alcohol and drugs--their commons sense was lacking that day.

 

[minkydog]

I"m right there with you. The ones who bring themselves willingly to the hospital, who take up space but don't want the treatments and interventions that are standard of care. In fact, sometimes they don't want anything--they just want to complain to somebody they think will care and once they get it off their chest(and cant get the narcotics they want) they're ready to throw in teh towel. But not without a lot of loud griping and cursing. I used to run into parents all teh time who would drag their non-emergent kids(think constipation, minor sore throat, vomited once,etc) into the ER at 4am rather than wait until office hours because they could get a legitimate excuse for skipping work the next day.

I have also been on the receiving end of healthcare workers who have their own ideas about how I should be treated. I had ruptured 2 discs a few years ago, and I ruptured a disc that morning. I knew exactly what it was and the ER doc concurred. Everything was copacetic UNTIL I mentioned that I react badly to Vicodin(severe vomiting) and could I please have Percocet. You should have seen his face--It said"uh,oh. Drug-seeker." I am NOT a drug seeker but there was no convincing him that. He gave me exactly ONE percocet and sent me home.On a weekend.

But that's nothing compared with the treatment we get when we have to haul Christian, our mentally handicapped, non-verbal son, into the ER. He can't tell anyone how he feels or how he got hurt, so they examine him over and over. They never trust us. They take DH & I separately to tell our story to several different people. THey ask us questions phrased different ways trying to slip us up. I mean, I understand that they have to be concerned about child abuse. Children who are seriously handicapped are in a high risk category. BUt really, this is a child who is obviously well-cared for. His injuries are always consistent with the story.It's not very nice to be made to feel like you purposely caused your child injury.

 

[arminnie]

my firend had chrohnes really bad and in college she was really sick. she would end up in the ER and they would send her home. One time they wanted to admit her into the psych ward! She knew what was wrong with her, what had to be done, etc, but they wouldn't listen.

I had something very similar happen to me with my gallbladder. I got send home twice from ER. Had my haircut the next day and my hairdresser correctly diagnosed it as gallstones.

So I go back to ER and this time they really are treating me like a psych patient. Asking my dad and sister if I have a history of psych problems because obviously this pain (OH THE AGONY) was all imaginary. After about 6 hours of wishing I would die because the pain was so bad he finally relented and did a sonogram. Last thing I heard him say as the iv meds kicked in was "well I guess your hairdresser was right."

But I really have had the last laugh here over this. I had not moved to Little Rock - was just visiting when all of this happened. Now that I've moved here I've made lots of friends - in particular lots of friend who are on the state medical board. And several friends who chair departments at the medical school (where this doctor works).

I've told my story about my hairdresser's superior medical skills dozens of times. This doctor has been teased unmercifully about it for years! Even the new students usually hear about it by the first semester. He will never live it down.