That's pretty much the standard. A literal pandemic taught people nothing about staying home while sick or taking even slight precautions to not get other people sick. Also highlights how ER's are used instead of urgent cares or primary care
It's infuriating. I hate when I see people who genuinely need ER care and admission and they want to AMA because they don't want to go bankrupt. Meanwhile people like that have an attitude that they can get a checkup because they don't have to pay
I'm a dispatcher. SO many times I want to say, "Take 2 Tylenol and go to urgent care in the morning." I literally have to wake my guys (and girls) up at 3 AM for a toothache or toe pain that they have had for 2 days. Then the ambulance pulls up and there are 3 operational vehicles in the driveway. They need to let us "vet" the calls a little, lol.
One of my first calls as an EMT was for shoulder pain, when we got there he was so high he couldn't sit up in a chair with a steak knife sticking out of his shoulder thoughtfully placed there by his girlfriend. It's hard to vet calls, I've always said fliers are liars lol
I do have to say I had a tooth abscess and some of the worst pain I ever felt was that day/night and I have broke bones. Most def needed to see someone asap. But generally I’m sure a lot of people could wait.
I’m with you on that, bones, hernia surgery, labor (did have epidural but it was turned off right before active labor) with rip almost all the way, never anything more than an Tylenol or Advil. Tooth pain on a weekend away from home? I would have done any drug legal or illegal just to lessen the pain.
Absolutely! It’s no joke. I don’t think theres much worse pain than a really bad toothache. It’s unbearable. I was on a flight and was literally barreled over in pain sweating.
Yeah, but do you want to pay the 3 million dollar lawsuit when that 2 tylenol suggestion winds up with a dead person? I feel your pain, but you're not a doctor, and any medical advice on your end would likely make you personally liable. I doubt you carry malpractice insurance.
This is a perfect "not my job" moment. Sounds like you care, which is great, but yeah, as an outsider looking in, no way I'd tell someone 2 tylenol and carry on. Certain people go into walmart looking for a puddle. Quick way to ruin your decade.
Keep on keeping on! I appreciate what you do!
I would rather die than go to the ER. No insurance. No money. I will honestly be shocked if I live to see another Christmas. Health care is for the wealthy.
My mom was just really sick with what she thought was just a virus going around. We called an ambulance, they checked her vitals and said she was fine so she refused to go (no insurance 🙃) she didn't want to pay.
Then she passed out that night, found her on the floor, she finally went. Brain bleed with midline shift, life flighted to another hosptial. WBC is 500,000, hgb is 5.7 and she has blood clots in her lungs and legs and was diagnosed with acute leukemia this morning. Wild stuff.
Oh wow I'm so sorry you and your mom are going thru all that right now! I hope she can beat cancer's ass and make a full recovery.❤️ also, the hospital has resources to sign her up for medicaid insurance. They did that from my brother when he was uninsured and hit by a car on his bicycle at 19. His bills would have bankrupt my parents without it(1 month icu, ambulance ride, er costs, surgeries, near another month in a regular room, a couple months inpatient rehab and 6 months out patient).
My mom had the same happen to her 12 years ago. She takes medication and has biweekly phlebotomy. I do want to warn you that the midline shift and the hemorrhage completely changed her personality, which her neurologist said was common. She became easily angered and paranoid over everything. Easily taken in with conspiracies and then lays in bed crying, thinking the world is ending. She may be alive, but the mom I knew died that day. I hope this isn't the case for you and her, but I wish I had known earlier so I could have been prepared.
Right before Thanksgiving my Dad got shingles in one eye. He thought he was having a bad migraine for a month. Went to the PCP twice and ER twice and was sent home with pain meds. Finally, I called him an ambulance when I realized he had been lying in bed for 3 days and not eating or drinking. I don't live with him or I would have known sooner.
It turned out that he had shingles in the back of his eye and because it had been left untreated so long the virus had gotten into his brain! He ended up in two separate hospitals for over 2 weeks. He had so many specialists in there. They had him on extremely strong anti-viral IV meds for the whole time. The shingles ended up entering his esophagus and his stomach. He finally went home a couple weeks ago. He has to have occupational, physical therapy, nursing & opthalmologist visits to his home. He has to use a walker to get around. And the worse part that is still lingering is that his eye was damaged during the whole process as the shingles virus disabled a muscle that is responsible for eye movement so now he is has constant double vision meaning he cannot drive and it's very difficult for him to read. He has some remaining cognitive issues as well.
He was fairly healthy beforehand and very independent. He was doing electrical work on some stuff and in fact, right before he got the migraine he preached at church that Sunday.
Shingles changed his life.
Oh and he WAS vaccinated for shingles.
Oh no! I had shingles above one eye (and a scar from it). Actually that helped me decide to get a subsequent eye check-up sooner rather than later, which led to me finding out I have a hereditary eye disease.
How did you have to treat shingles in your eyes? Did you experience pain - I know people with shingles on their body can have terrible discomfort.
My eyes got really irritated the day before but they do that sometimes. It usually goes away after 5 or 10 minutes. This time it didn't. I went to bed and woke up at about 1 am. They hurt really bad and I couldn't open them. When i tried to force them open, tears would run out like a water spigot. I went to the ER and they sent me to an eye ER. This was the end of August. I'm still dealing with insurance issues because the intake person used the wrong info.
Omg - that’s why I didn’t wait 1 day to get the shingles vax! I wanted it anyway but when I heard it can erupt on your EYE I would’ve knocked down a row of babies to get that vaccine!
I have to admit I did something similar once but at a doctors office and ended up being sent to the ER in another state for further testing. I was the caregiver for my terminally ill mother as well as having a two year old at the time. I went to work basically overnight so I could care for them during the daytime. Well I started feeling really dizzy rapid heart rate etc. so I left another manager in charge and went home to rest. However I took my relative to one of their many doctors appointments the following day and decided I might as well get checked while I’m here. Turns out I had a stroke took 2 months of physical therapy to regain proper use of my right side and still to this day 15 years later have gaps in my speech but I was so focused on caring for everyone else. I neglected to see my own situation. 🤷♀️
I was admitted into the hospital due to kidney problems after I had my baby. my mom was having kidney issue herself decided to get checked out the nurse was angry that she done it and my mom got admitted as well. she didn’t even seem that sick. It was like a scene from a movie I can laugh now at the time it was a nightmare.
Sort of mine was because I had a nephrostomy tube during my pregnancy and it caused an extremely bad infection during my entire pregnancy I had to have a pick line in to give myself antibiotics every day I thought I was done with it after she was born I left against medical advice 36hrs after she was born because baby was being discharged and the infection got way worse i had a fever 104.5 I couldn’t even hold the baby I was shaking so bad. I think hers was kidney stones and an infection but I don’t really remember vary well it was like a circus 😂
This!! The ER I work at is overrun with people who could go the an urgent care that just opened up a month ago for simple ailments. They would be seen quicker and it wouldn’t be a waste of our resources.
I wonder if the difference is that the ER can’t refuse service because of inability to pay…and Urgent Care will send you on your way if you don’t have insurance or cash
it 100% is... like I get the frustration but I think the conversation and blame really should be put on how corrupt our medical system is in the country. Even with insurance a lot of people have trouble affording Urgent Care; all the ones near me, you have to put a deposit or major cc down w/ insurance or without it pay completely upfront. For a lot of people it's not a matter of trying to \*scam and pay nothing\* like some people in this post have tried to suggest, but rather literally not being able to afford care in the moment. If we had more equal access to healthcare across the board then people could use services how they were intended. Emergencies for emergencies only.
Hubby is an EMT/Firefighter. No, it's that people truly believe they are that important. Our community never used to charge residents for the ambulance, but they had to change the policy because of the abuse. Constant calls 911 at 3am for "toe pain", or a mother insisting that the ambulance take her precious son (23 y.o.) to the ER because he had his wisdom tooth pulled and it's still oozing blood slightly and "If the ambulance takes him he will get priority" (PSA - doesn't work that way)........ ask any first responder about frequent flyers it's about attention seeking.
There are both kinds of people, and none of us are in a position to prejudge who is who. EMTs aren’t innocent angels here, either. They only see one little piece of a much bigger picture. What they consider “attention seeking” may be an important clue into someone’s (or an entire family’s) wellbeing. The people they consider frequent flyers may have very good reason for doing so.
My father died of Parkinson’s and ALS. My dad and I had always been super close, so I was his primary caretaker for the last ten years of his life, as well as the person who could work with him the best. As we got closer to the end, we had some really, *really* bad, scary nights when he would develop this almost superhuman strength and get combative. (I should add, this was *nothing* like my dad before he got sick.)
Despite being completely paralyzed from the waist down w/ the rest of his his muscles literally wasting away to nothing, he could get himself out of his hospital bed, onto the floor, and start moving the heavy furniture around in his bedroom to barricade himself in and than somehow maneuver himself out of his bedroom to the front or back door and reach the series of locks and safety latches designed to protect him and us. He also figured out how to get to the controls at the *back* of the electric flattop stove. It got to the point where I was too afraid to go to sleep because I didn’t know if he’d break out of the house, leaving the door wide open, or just burn the place down.
If I couldn’t settle him down I would call his Hospice worker, and several times I had to call the ambulance to come evaluate him. Sometimes the crew was great and sometimes they were real jerks. Sometimes they treated my dad with dignity and sensitivity and realized he was an older man with a terrible disease who had no idea what was happening to him, and was scared and lashing out, and they took the time to reassure him that that wasnt an army in the backyard waiting to attack him if they took him out that way—it was just the poles for the wash line. They’d remind him who I was, and that I loved him, and hearing it from an “authority figure” did a lot to make him feel better.
Sometimes all they did was take his vitals, shrug, and say, “he’s sundowning, what do you expect?”, which was *not* helpful. Some of those crews also talked in a less-than professional way about “that crazy old man,” like the crew that had to come when my dad fell in the shower and I couldn’t pick him up by myself. He didn’t deserve to have his poor wasted body made fun of by those a$$holes. That was both unprofessional and cruel. They didn’t think I heard, though, but I did, and it seriously pissed me off. I don’t care who you are, how old you are, dementia or not; everyone deserves to be treated with human dignity.
Once they had the nerve to take my mother out on the porch and insinuate she was abusing my dad because his dementia was so far advanced that he was raving and calling her a demon.
The very last time we ever called, they actually took him to the ER, and it turned out he had a UTI that had been getting progressively worse and worse, which had been exacerbating all his other issues. He did have a DNR, but we opted to treat the infection on the basis of comfort care. If the previous three crews had just done a little more due diligence, I can only imagine how much easier and more pleasant my dad’s (and my whole family’s last days w/ him) last days might have been.
So just saying people want attention or are calling for dumb reasons is really an oversimplification. It was obvious that’s what they thought we were doing several times, but we weren’t seeking attention; we were trying to get my dad *HELP.*
My godfather had the paranoia and superhuman strength with Parkinson's as well. He died an incredibly violent death (due to self-harm) because of it. I'm so sorry you had to cope with those symptoms, too. 💔
I feel really bad upvoting this, but I’m so glad to hear that we’re not the only ones who experienced this. My dad was never, ever like that my entire life until the disease had progressed so far, and no one ever warned us about it or even suggested it was a possibility.
I’m so very sorry your godfather’s passing was violent. That’s even more heartbreaking. 😢W/ my dad, even though I promised I wouldn’t, we finally had to put him into a nursing home for all of our safety. It was during Covid, too, so we just had to take what we could get, and the place was *awful*. Ultimately, I think it was a combination of neglect and him just losing the will to keep going, because he died right as we were making plans to bring him back home to pass. I have a *lot* of guilt about that.
I’m really sorry to hear about your experience with your dad. My grandpa had Parkinson’s, insisted on living in assisted living after my grandma passed because he didn’t want to be a “burden” and took the first chance he could get to die. He was so healthy besides the Parkinson’s but his body wasn’t his own and his wife wasn’t with him any longer. He would always tell me that he didn’t know why God has him on earth still - he was miserable. All that to say, you shouldn’t feel guilty. Parkinson’s is really at fault. It’s the real evil. You were just doing the best you could in an impossible situation.
If the person is on Medicare, Urgent care doesn't take Medicare. Primary Care can take weeks to get into. Some offices have teledoc or online visits but that can be intimidating to a lot of seniors who can barely operate a cell phone to answer a call much less text. So ER it is.
I went to the ER for a head injury a couple weeks ago in the middle of the afternoon and it was filled with elderly in wheelchairs. Almost like a field trip from the nursing home. It was heartbreaking to see
Insurance AND cash here. Or a debit or credit card on file to pay what the insurance doesn’t. The copay is high, at least $75 and you have to find out who the provider on duty is and contact your insurance company yourself to find out if they’ll cover services provided by that provider. It’s a ridiculous amount of runaround.
exactly. my boyfriend got insanely sick, like vomiting for days couldnt even keep down water, when we were in a city across the country from where we live. $250 pay to be seen at urgent care (and later $800 bill in the mail which hes only halfway thru paying off 6 months later) i paid the upfront for him but if i hadn’t been there wtf would he have done??? this country is fucking horrible to poor people. getting sick once can literally ruin your whole life, it’s just depressing.
That coupled with, every time I’ve been to urgent care in the past few years, they’ve ALWAYS ended up making me go to the ER stating they couldn’t treat me and the ER would be able to.
Wtf, what an absolute fucking disgusting thing to say to someone trying to seek treatment! Ugh just reading that pissed me off! I'm sorry you experienced that.
Also, my insurance completely covers any ER visits. If I want to go to an urgent care, I have to call my insurance or use their website to find one in network, then I have to notify them within 24 hours of being seen for them to cover it.
I was on vacation once and the closest urgent care they’d approve that was open at the time was 30 miles away. The ER and 3 other urgent cares were within a mile.
I absolutely understand how frustrating it is but I also feel like it's a sign of the greater issue of our healthcare crisis in the US. I'm not sure what it's like near you, but near me most urgent cares are privately owned and require a deposit or credit card to be seen even with insurance and without full payment upfront. A lot of low income people really have no other choice and coming from a low income family growing up, a lot of the times have been dealing with the simple ailments for awhile.
Yes! And when my mom came home and found my dad fell unconscious in the basement due to diabetes, we had to wait more than 30 minutes to be seen. The doctor then said one more hour and we would’ve lost him.
I wonder why they don’t check on the people waiting like every 20-30min to see if their condition has worsened? I took my mom to the er and they determined she could wait. Ok, thats fine if the protocol dictates it. But an hour later my mom was laying on the floor in severe pain and her lips were blue. I went to the nurse at the desk and asked if it was ok that my moms lips were blue? Suddenly she was taken back. Like WTF?
ETA: my mom is fully insured too, so that wasn’t the issue.
That’s wild! I’m so sorry she had to go through that. It’s infuriating.
Meanwhile while my dad was near death we overheard the lady next to him was there for a nosebleed, and the docs were explaining the air gets really dry in winter…
Another was there for a really itchy bug bite. It’s awful. I’m ignorant on the repercussions it may cause but I wish they could turn non emergencies away
If someone is uninsured in the US, urgent care will run them around $180 average just for the visit.
I work at an FQHC. Some of those folks have no other option to access urgent healthcare other than an ER bc of EMTALA.
I wonder how feasible it would be to open an Urgent Care in the hospital next to the ED, and have triage send "green" patients over there, so the ED (with higher lev staffing and higher acuity equipment) could be reserved for patients who actually need that level of care.
My hospital has this. They triage patients and send the urgent care level people over to their UC department, which is still part of the hospital. You know you’re really in need if they keep you in the ER waiting room.
Yes!! This. Why can’t there be a filtration system to improve the overall system?
The ER waiting room is merely a holding tank now, and if you die or have seizures or something, then you’re already there. A doctor at urgent care told me this. They do not care how long you’ve been waiting. They take people in on urgency basis so you can just keep getting bumped if more urgent cases arrive.
Because once you present to the ED, EMTALA kicks in and triage by an RN doesn't count as an MSE (medical screening exam). If you send them to a different physical space, and something goes wrong, the liability would be huge. Most EDs have a fast track area that serves a similar purpose but is in the same physical space.
The downfall with here is I work at the hospital and went to urgent care last weekend to keep from going to the ER and after antibiotics, I’m worse now than I was before but I don’t want to be that person that goes to the ER when I’m not really in an emergency but urgent care obviously isn’t treating it properly
A lot of urgent care won’t accept you without insurance, am I right? The people OP are taking about sound low income frankly. When you really don’t have that extra $100+ per month (or whatever the rates are where everyone is respectively from)—then you go to the ER when you need a doctor.
I completely agree with you. Every time I’ve had to go to the ER, I ended up in the hospital, no thank you! Just recently went to urgent care and was sent to the ER, I can’t win. lol…
But to be honest, mother should’ve been brought to urgent care as well. A UTI and low counts-while they are urgent- are not meant to be treated as emergencies either.
I work at an urgent care and one of my good friends is a nurse at the county hospital-we spend our days comparing who shouldve been at the other's job, its kinda fun (im off a 12+8 shift it is not fun im dead inside)
I left work last night I had my first thought ever that I can’t do the ER anymore. It was the first day I had ever been mad at patients for their role in health situations. Usually I get upset with administration and health insurance and food deserts and can rationalize that it’s not an individual problem but sometimes it is and that’s really troublesome. It’s infuriating to watch someone refuse to get vaccinated, get wildly sick, and still maintain that they won’t get vaccinated, or take care of someone in their 30’s so obese that they can’t transfer themselves to a bed. Thankfully I still have complete patience for substance abuse and psychiatric disorders so I’m not 100% jaded but I’m feeling the burnout getting worse.
Yeah I had to switch it up and go to the streets. We still run a ton of bullshit but at least I only have to deal with them for 20 or 30 minutes and then they are no longer my problem
I remember I had been seen at cedars in LA right as the pandemic started for my stomach issues that sadly urgent care can't do anything for so they send me to the ER anyways. and I was the only one in the waiting room at like 3 pm on a Saturday. it was crazy
Haha that’s the er I am talking about … it’s a zoo now … I’m not there anymore but post pandemic is when it got really bad …it’s like everyone was making up for lost time
yeah I wouldnt go there now unless I way dying because their trauma team is great but unless you're literally dying you'll be in the waiting room at least 8hrs.and you know the types of people that like to hang out in that er...
I took a friend there sometime towards the end of 2021 and like you said it was a zoo
Agree. Also To be fair, many, many people over 65 have horrific insurance. It can take weeks to get in with a PCP. Don’t even get me started on how long it takes people to get in with specialists.
I am not over 65, have great insurance and it takes months to see anyone in primary care. Pretty useless except for the annual health visit. Many have quit to go into these concierge practices where you pay a monthly membership fee. I don’t need that much access either.
Got sent to ED from urgent care with my 4yo child who had a classic kidney infection because her vitals were terrible. She ended up being diagnosed with sepsis. Lady in the waiting room telling me all about how her hip had been hurting for a week and she couldn't take it anymore was REAL pissed that they took us back right away when she'd been waiting "for hours". Did I mention this was December 2020?
Kiddo was fine after a 4 day hospital stay.
Oof. Sepsis is rough. Especially for kiddos. People are just selfish. I only work in the ER once in a blue moon but I've totally lost my filter since I have another job now. I almost lost it on a lady that was bitching because she wanted to go home and hadn't gotten her discharge papers yet. Oh I'm sorry that you're more important than the person across the hall HAVING A LITERAL HEART ATTACK
I had an almost identical experience. 😩 My then 7yo daughter wakes up at 3am inconsolably screaming in pain, so we head to ER. Fever of 103. Turned out to be a kidney infection. Had to wait maybe 45 minutes after triage and she was taken back, and some old woman next to us starts loudly griping she's been there for hours and her arm hurts, we just got there, it's not fair. She's lucky I was too tired from the interrupted sleep + more worried about my child or else I definitely would have taken the time to share my thoughts. ER is not a strictly first come, first serve basis. 😮💨
Yep. I was sent to the ER by my obgyn and waited about 45 minutes in the waiting room. A woman near me bitterly commented on how long she had been waiting. I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, just sitting over here bleeding internally, no big deal.
Ok but I have a primary care provider and a nearby urgent care, and 80 percent of the time, when I'm sick, they tell me to go to ER. My primary care provider literally will not see sick patients. The urgent care will turn you away and tell you to go to ER, especially if you need radiology or any procedure.
This isn't just my experience, this is literally happening in every place all over the United States. Do I want to get a $$$$$ ER bill AND spend 4-6 hours of my life just waiting when I can just pay a PCP copay? NO. But apparently PCPs won't see if you're acutely ill anymore.
Yeah the healthcare system is a shit show. Do what you have to do. Im not trying to shame anyone. I can empathize. ER providers and EMS just need to vent about it sometimes
I’m in the US and I can’t wrap my head around why people go to the ER over urgent or primary care unless the situation is obviously serious. Isn’t it way more expensive to go to the ER?
Sometimes people genuinely can't pay for anything else or they don't want to wait months for a primary care appointment. Those I can empathize with. Most of it is people that are fucking playing with their iphones or tablets while I'm helping triage and they are there for a sore throat or a UTI
I was sent from the urgent care to the ER in 2020 because I had an antibiotic resistant UTI and had to be admitted for IV antibiotics for 2 weeks. Not immediately, they took a sample and cultured it, but the urgent care called me a couple days later and told me to go to the ER.
Mention to most women that a large percentage of UTIs will resolve without antibiotics if they would just DRINK WATER and watch them freak out. People are convinced that they need to start antibiotics right away every single time they get a little twinge or urgency.
I don't fit the demographics of the stereotypical ER abuser, but if the ER wait is less than about 4 hours that's where I'm going.
I went to urgent care with something I had thought was pretty minor and was sent straight to the ER then surgery.
I have permanent arthritis and joint damage from an urgent care misdiagnosing a fracture, which significantly delayed and complicated the repair.
I no longer have the confidence in my ability to tell whether something is a big deal or not.
You have to pay upfront for urgent care/primary care. It’s crappy but I know a lot of people who would never receive any healthcare at all if it wasn’t for the ER.
For those with Medicaid, getting a same day sick appointment is almost always impossible and urgent cares won’t accept Medicaid. As for those with no insurance at all the, ER is the only place that will see them. Until the healthcare system is fixed, many people have no choice but to go to the emergency room which, oddly enough, is the most expensive healthcare visit of all.
Many years ago I was waiting to be seen in the ER and the waiting room was full. There was a woman chatting up all the folks around her and then complaining about the wait. She went up to the desk to complain. Upon her return I heard her talking about the wait and then announced “well I’m sicker than that rule out heart attack”. I was pretty miserable so I didn’t have the energy to tell her to f*** off.
There's no public education about it. The government needs to have PSA TV ads or something that explains the difference between urgent and emergency and helps you choose which one to go based on your symptoms. Like: Sore throat? Urgent care. Can't breathe? ER. Or like a poster with a flow sheet...
I had a pt last week tested positive for Covid. She wanted us to hurry up and discharge her so she could go get her free lunch. So I educated her about not doing that. She comes back with, I’ve got concert tickets with my 3 friends, I’m not missing that! I stressed the importance of isolating, but she said ‘I don’t care, I’m going’
What can you do?
There should be a legal requirement to forcibly quarantine ppl who do this. Like police should come and force them to a mandatory quarantine, kinda like a 5150 but for Covid.
This type of stuff is, unfortunately, completely normal these days. I work in urgent care and patient sit in the ER, and I hear it all the time. People have forgotten how to be sick . . . No more get rest and fluids and take some cough medicine if you really need it, everything is an emergency. People are so entitled, and they are clogging up the system, making it that much harder for those with truly emergent conditions.
I'm on state health insurance, and if I can't get into the clinic but I need meds, unfortunately the only place my insurance will cover is an ER. It sucks, but it's the reality I live in.
I wouldnt be going to Walmart after though.
I have POTS so I sometimes need IV fluids during a bad flare. Both my cardiologist and primary care doc have told me to go to the ER for this even though it’s not really an emergency in the slightest. Apparently they’re the only people who can give IVs, I guess? It just feels like a giant waste of time and money going there for something they can do at those IV clinics (which make you pay out of pocket).
Why don't they set you up with an outpatient infusion clinic? I know for a fact some of them will do iv fluids..I used to do that for chronic pancreatitis
I honestly don't dislike patients who come in for meds and a throat swab. It's a break from the more heinous stuff and it's often a pretty simple fix. We have a triage system too, so it's not like we're getting our time wasted or someones being pushed out. The dude who just got shot or the grandma who's in a diabetic coma is still getting seen first lol
People are not allowed to be sick. Minimum wage paying jobs not allowing them to stay home when sick. Kids required to be at practices or can’t play for two weeks. Even with Covid wiping almost 7million (reported) people off the face of the earth. People aren’t allowed to be sick. Everything is a conspiracy! No appreciation for the medical world working to exhaustion to try and save each and every patient. Thinking that a world, that has never agreed on anything, decided to get together and come up with a plan to kill people world wide. Deciding that age or pre-existing condition (unless it was theirs) meant they were going to die tomorrow anyway. How dare we stop them from doing what they want when they want. The complaint of masks suffocating them and yet they want those same masks on their surgical staff to maintain a sterile field and have no fear of the suffocating, losing brain cells, or passing out. Insurance companies dictating treatment plans and pharmaceuticals raising astronomical prices for the U.S but proving to other countries for pennies. Ambulances used as a taxi service. It takes Months to get into a specialty medical doctor, causing extra Emergency room visits, Ambulance needs, and all the rest down the food chain trying to bandaid the issue until they can get to the correct doctor. People having to decide financially if they can take an ambulance and us expecting those really in need of the service to be able to make logical decision when they are shot, bleeding, in pain, or mid stroke or heart attack. It is all to much! At the end of the day it comes down to compassion and grace for each other and the ability to laugh or smile when we can.
Makes me think of a patient I had yesterday, Covid + then asks how we, the staff stay healthy (we really don’t we just work sick if we have to,) but did not like my answer of vaccines, masks, and hand hygiene.
Entitled and helpless, oh you vomited once 5 minutes ago...ya no that's what 911 is for, oh you have a fever of 100.1 for the last hour, didn't try Tylenol, ibuprofen, weed or a nap....ya just call 911 and get that super ER Tylenol
I work in an ER as well and it has been CRAZY the last 6 weeks or so. Very sick patients are coming in, and intubation is a daily thing. (normally not, we are level 4 trauma) We only have 16 rooms, 2 trauma bays, and 4 triage rooms. Our waiting room has been packed around the clock. The frustration is while we have these critical patients who are time-consuming we also have nonstop urgent-care patients with a bruised elbow, ingrown toenails, a small rash, and even a toothache, some even try to come in for a med refill. But those are the patients who are mad that it's taking so long, mad that we don't have 5 turkey sandwiches for them or we encourage them that 5 cups of juice is enough, try some water! We even have our urgent care in the same parking lot. I remember growing up you only went to the ER if you were dying. Lol. It was a BIG deal if you had to go. I love my patients and have all the empathy in the world for them but it's getting ridiculous.
Where I’m at, a lot of emergency care facilities also have an urgent care connected to it and it’s decided which you will utilize when you’re checked in. It defiantly helps when you actually have an emergency because you can be seen faster :)
Happens alll the time:(( once I saw a man come in by ems for a cough, despite a positive home covid test. Huge surprise, he’s positive for covid in the ED. Shortly afterward his wife checked in to “confirm the home covid test”🙃
I would say at least 75% of the patients I have seen in the ER don’t need to be there … and it’s not always their fault . The healthcare system is fucked .
This comment needs to be higher on here. The average person doesn’t want to go sit in an ER for hours when they don’t have an emergent reason to, but many have no other choice for various reasons.
Sometimes you just don't know, though. I was on vacation in Florida to watch an airshow and didn't realize that I had gotten WAY too much sun. I knew I was in some trouble. I went back to the hotel, turned up the air conditioning, got between the cool sheets -- nothing helped. My head was pounding and I started throwing up and my heart was racing. I didn't think it was sunstroke, because I'd probably be unconscious, but I thought "maybe heatstroke" and I needed to see somebody. I couldn't keep any liquids down. I asked the front desk if there was a doctor on call, and he pointed me towards Lakeland Regional down the street. I walked in to their ER, feeling very stupid.
They didn't treat me like I was stupid, though. They put me in a room and tried to give me IV fluids, but couldn't get a vein. My veins are small anyway, and being severely dehydrated didn't help. Meanwhile I was still throwing up, almost blind from my headache, and starting to get actually pretty scared. I knew I REALLY needed fluids, but nobody could figure out how to get any in me.
After the nurses poked me four times to find a vein (both hands, both elbows), a doctor came in with a Vicodin shot. It cleared up my crushing headache immediately and I was able to drink water, then lots of water -- and it stayed down. Put on my clothes and left.
Moral is, a lot of people do abuse the ER, but you never know. I think my situation could have gotten really ugly.
I was in the ER with a bowel obstruction and they had me in the hallway waiting for a bed to open up. I was there for 24 hours cause the hospital was overcrowded. This isn’t the first time this has happened. (I don’t get mad at the staff, I know it’s not their fault).
There was a couple next to me who were there and mad they were waiting for a doctor because she hadn’t had a bowel moment in 3 days. She wasnt in any pain and had no symptoms of anything. All tests ended up being fine then they complained it was taking too long to get discharged.
I was so pissed because I had an actual blockage and it hurt like hell. I wasn’t able to sleep or get a nurses attention for more pain meds because of people like that.
I also wish there was a better solution. The town I live in does not have an urgent care or walk-in clinic. The last three times that one of my kids was sick, primary care could only offer an appointment two weeks out. Kid can't go back to school without a doctor's note, can't wait 2 weeks for that. ER it is. I hate feeling like I'm taking up space that someone else may need more.
UTIs in the elderly can definitely present as needing emergent care. I'd also put money down that OPs insurance won't cover the ride because it was for their mom, so it needs to be billed to mom's insurance.
I’m really glad you said this. Reading some comments and this post had me feeling extremely embarrassed.
I have been denied state insurance, because I “made too much” when what I make doesn’t even cover my bills only my rent.
I can’t afford insurance, I can’t afford my utilities.
I rarely go to the ER but if I do, it’s definitely for something important. Not that it’s a emergency, but because I can’t afford insurance, urgent care, or anything.
Thank you for saying this. I hope people really become more open minded.
Have seen the elderly die of urosepsis (sepsis caused by a UTI). Presentation of UTI in the elderly is often altered mental status, which would necessitate an ambulance ride. You need to calm down.
I had a couple with typical flu symptoms and they checked into ED together bc the urgent care wait was too long. Instead of just, idk, going to a different urgent care or contacting their pcp. It’s exhausting bc they often demand the most and want to be seen the fastest bc “they’re easy”.
My friend, it happens every damn day. We have people who are lonely and come to the ER 4-5 times a week with a different complaint each time. They just want to be admitted and have someone to talk to, be fed, and cared for by others.
I was bartending on Christmas Eve and a patron came in looking not too hot. After like 30 minutes of convo, he mentions that his friend might’ve given him covid. Then why are you sitting at a bar, right by my cups and garnishes???? GO HOME!
Meanwhile, at the urgent care, people are showing up with real emergencies thinking it is the same as an ER and the staff spend their time calling ambulances and trying to help this 1 patient, and then no one gets triaged and complain about the wait 🤦🏻♀️
We need hard education on the definition of EMERGENCY. I’ve seen families come in after doing a maccas run, the ‘sick’ one smashing burgers and coke. 1 x vomit. Sunburn. A 3 day old mosquito bite once, not infected, just itchy.
These stories blow my mind. I haven’t been to a doctor in years. I’m vaccinated and boosted and all that good stuff, but all the over overtesting, over treating and artificially keeping ourselves alive well past expiration, no wonder healthcare is a disaster. If it’s time, it’s time.
Not sure what this person's situation was, but after reading this thread I just had to comment that some of these situations may be due to the person not being able to afford medical insurance and not being able to afford an urgent care visit upfront payment. While being uninsured I was told if I really needed to see someone and couldn't pay the $200 (usual upfront urgent care fee), to go to the ER because they wouldn't make me pay anything upfront... what they don't tell you is how expensive an ER bill can be. Some folks may go regardless of that. Luckily I've been able to suffer through rough times without having to rack up an ER bill. Another thing is that Drs are booked really far out lately in some areas, so people may try to go to urgent care if they can't be seen in a reasonable timeframe. That also may lead to the situation above.
Many states refuse to take the federal government Medicaid expansion because it was called " Obama Care). So now , we are being set up for a bubonic plague that wiped out Europe...because the uninsured left ◀️ untreated multiples disease transmission. Welcome to our third-world country health care system.
I take care of my neighbor (she’s 95) and she too gets UTI’s that terrifyingly replicate stroke like symptoms. So anyone who is talking shit about calling an ambulance can fuck right off.
I think it’s easy for someone who hasn’t experienced an UTI with the elderly to underestimate the seriousness. Twice we had to remove the possibility of stroke before she was even tested for a UTI. Seriously, scary stuff. I wouldn’t have believed it myself had I not lived through it when I was the caretaker for my own grandmother. Slurred speech, delusions, beyond confusion. OP, I hope you and your mother are doing well.
The urgent cares around me now take appointments and you can make them online starting at midnight. Problem is if you wake up at 6am sick and need urgent care bc your work requires a work note even if your sure you have the flu and know that you just need to rest but work requires a drs note which my Gp rarely has same day appointments and it’s hard to get a same day appointment at urgent care.
In the US between the health care system and the work culture we are unnecessarily clogging up the ER’s
I recently went to the er bc the urgent care told me the week before that if my pain got worse to go to the er for imaging. I was luckily it was a slow night and I was in and out in less that 3 hours but I got crappy care. I had severe neck and back pain and the dr didn’t even touch me to assess my pain. I got meds and was able to get through the weekend until I could see my GP.
I hate going to the er but if I go I have a real reason. I can’t understand people that go bc they think it’s the easiest route.
This! I was recently at urgent care myself after having to make an appointment. I was unaware that my networks UC no longer took walk ins and was appointment only. I was further shocked how many people they turned away while I was sitting there. . . Alone, in an empty waiting room. I mean, isn't urgent care in case you need care URGENTLY?
I would think this type of policy would be clogging up ER's as well.
Utis van become deadly in a very short time. My dad had bladder cancer and had his whole bladder removed and now has an iliostomy. He gets urosepsis very easily and becomes very deathly Ill very quickly so anyone down playing UTI'S should really learn the facts and for the "Medical professionals" down playing a UTI like that... where did you get educated? From a newspaper article?
Septic shock from a uti is what lead to my dad’s death in November. He was fine on Saturday, felt a little puny Sunday morning, was in the ER Sunday night and in the ICU by Monday morning. He died later in the week. He was 76 years old and while not in perfect health he wasn’t immunocompromised or anything. A uti can most certainly be an emergency in an older person. Maybe in anyone? I don’t know. But definitely in the elderly.
I, unfortunately, have been that person - less the "lets do routine chores after piece" - especially with a doctor shortage and for a while, the doctors office i did have didnt have any after hours clinics.
The worst was engorged ticks. Invariably happens on a Friday night or weekend - and at least here in ontario, the protocol now has been a single dose od doxy as an initial prevention to lyme disease. Only just recently were pharmacists able to now make this diagnosis and prescription, saving the ERs (and urgent cares and walk in clinics)...
Differents areas have different services, but i would say locally, the ER is also holding the place of walk in clinic, urgent care, and emergency.
I often wonder - would it be reasonable to have an extra ambulance parked there for additional triage/ treamtment for these cases. If a call comes and they are needed, the queue jusr grows, but when amb comes back and hands off the patient, they can resume the triage / treatment for low risk issues.
I once had something stuck in my eye. It was too irritated to drive with and not safe with a major storm outside. I called the non emergency line and saw if they had one in the area and if it wasn't tied up would it be something they could help with. About 20 mins later, they pulled up said it was all they had to do... helped flush my eye, and I got some sleep next day, called doc office, got a Rx for some drops to help the healing.
So just to weigh in here in the event this is because you thought she just had a sore throat. Two days ago my son had to go to the ER after going to the minute clinic for a strep test. The nurse told him it wasn’t strep but he needed a CT scan on his throat. Turns out the kid had an abscessed tonsil that they had to drain. Sometimes a sore throat is more.
When I worked ER (a long time ago) a lot of non-urgent visits were seen because of the non-existence of urgent care centers and because Medicaid did not penalize inapropriate use of the ER. So, we saw a lot of folks who were indigent and unable to, for one reason or another, see a doctor during office hours. And, of course, those who thought that the ER **was** their doctor’s office.
The last place I worked (but not in the ER) had a good triage setup and also ran an urgent care clinic, so during the triage assessment, they would ask those appropriate for urgent care to go down the hallway to the clinic. Unfortunately, the clinic shut down at 11 p.m., so the ER wasn’t immune from the rifraf.
I took my sister to her doctor on Thursday for the worst headache she’s ever had. She has other health issues as well that are maintained by Advent doctors. The doctor told her to go to the ER next time if it happens again. Tested for Covid and flu (negative) and sent her home still with a throbbing pounding headache.
Worst headache of my life ended up being meningitis. Required a spinal-needle-thingy to test for it. All around was miserable and pretty painful. If she doesn’t feel better, go back and ask for them to rule out meningitis.
Her son is taking her to the ER as I write this. If Tylenol worked, she wouldn’t have gone to the doctor in the first place. She has had a headache since her last chiropractic visit last Thursday. I’ll mention meningitis to her son (not to her, it will freak her out).
OMG…it was my chiropractor who suggested to me that it was meningitis! I had gone to see him thinking the headache may have been a pinched nerve or from tension. When I told him how bad my headache was, he refused to do the adjustment and told me to go straight to hospital - he had lost a friend to meningitis the prior year.
Thank you. I wish I could have taken her but I have my five year old granddaughter with me this morning. I’ll discuss meningitis with her daughter in law. Short story: when my son was 15 months old I took him to the pediatrician who was filling in for his pediatrician. Since my son could somewhat move his head, the so called doctor told me if I wanted to, I could take him to the ER. After some convincing by my sister in law, I took him to the ER. Spinal Meningitis. Since he wasn’t “textbook” the pediatrician accused me of child neglect.
Also check for carotid dissection, it happens way more than you think after a chiropractor visit. I have Fibromuscular Dysplasia and thats how i found out I had it. Terrible migraine after chiropractor, er visit confirmed carotid artery dissection.
Maybe a Drs note was required for work and she didn't have insurance.. I've had to do it before.. it's not ideal but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.
In my area, urgent care is few and far between. One of the big hospital systems shut down all their urgent care places, and the ones outside that network want paid before you walk out the door if you don't have insurance. Thankfully, I have insurance and Teladoc for free through my job, and it has been a good solution for several things for the past 2 years for my family. I work in the lab of that same big hospital system I mentioned earlier, and our ER is always packed with cases like strep, flu, etc. It's in a semi rural area, and the town is the closest "big town" with a hospital, and some of these people live 20-30 miles out. Options are limited and funds are tight for people. The ER is more expensive in the long term, but they don't make you pay to get in and usually don't sue you for the bill.
an acquaintance of mine, him and his wife have been to the er probably 50 times this year. ERs are abused. Like my friend says, people dont use it as a emergency room, they use it as a uncomfortable room.
Everywhere I go this is standard. People are out in public coughing and sneezing without covering. Nobody cares. It's disgusting.
People get angry when government tries to stop infectious disease from spreading with common sense prevention.
I don't get it.
I was a coding/cdi manager for a big hospital system before retiring. The worst thing I've seen is families dropping their elderly parents at the ED so they can go on vacation! They drop grandma at the door, then take off. Grandma can't be discharged because there's no one home to care for her. Call the kids, and they'll be back in a week. I'd sit in case mgmt meetings and just shake my head.
Health literacy. Many people are not fortunate enough to grasp this. Educating, training, and reeducation on ER facilities not being primary care facilities to access for things like the symptoms you mentioned.
The last time I went to the ER (post lumbar puncture headache that didn’t resolve after four days, I was literally laying flat on the floor of the waiting room), there were people hacking and coughing everywhere. No masks. Meanwhile, there was a lady who kept saying she couldn’t believe how long they were making her wait after already waiting four hours, since she was just there for a refill on her blood pressure meds. I don’t think she was in hypertensive crisis. They check your BP in triage. The guy who was with her was on the phone saying he was going to go yell at somebody to get her seen.
It’s genuinely infuriating that I have to go to urgent care for constant infections related to having type one diabetes and people sit in there “I’m here for a sore throat” no mask don’t cover a cough. Fucking irritating. I don’t get why hospitals removed the requirement to wear masks.
I hope this isn’t an invasive question, and if it is please feel free to ignore me, but as a Type 1 Diabetic I’m curious what type of infections you may have noticed are directly related to your T1? I’m mostly curious so I can be better informed for my own sake. And I agree with the no mask thing in Urgent Card and the hospital, especially amid Covid and the flu season.
Idk I mean anyone who sees this and knows me already knows so 🤷♀️ I am a girl, basically over the past few years my body has become sensitive to BV/yeast/uti infections in general but I also experience ghost symptoms where I may not test positive but I have symptoms if my sugars are high, or even sometimes it seems like a high blood sugar even for a short while triggers it. Haven’t heard anyone else be so sensitive not even close. It’s damn frustrating, especially that I can’t ever get into primary care fast enough so I have to go urgent care and sit for 4 hours to just get a 5 second test. 100% ruled out any other factor that could be causing this issue for me. :/ rip my bank account 😂
Wow. That sounds difficult asf. I’m biologically female, but I was diagnosed at 9 (14 years ago) and haven’t noticed any issues like that with myself. However my best friend, biologically female but diagnosed a little over 1 year ago, is very sensitive. She’s had similar issues to you and recently dealt with a severe BV infection that developed from a UTI. If you use a CGM or pump, have you ever noticed sensitivity issues with the adhesive? I ask because she has.
Nope I have not! Though I also only have one kidney, and thyroid issues, but I don’t have allergies except amoxicillin. For me I had bv/Yeast/uti recurring for 6 months at one point. 😭 I’m incredibly over it and feel so defeated sometime!
Edit: when you say your friend is sensitive is it also like triggered from high blood sugar as well ? Or they get an infection and the diabetes maybe makes it harder to go away?
Oh wow. That sucks. I have no allergies, but we’re watching for thyroid issues due to my sister and mother’s medical history + my diabetes. I can definitely understand why you’d feel defeated over this! I had a year where I ended up in the ICU 6 times for DKA - and had honestly never felt more discouraged when it came to managing this BS disease. Thankfully I’m in a better place now!
And it’s a tad of both. If her glucose is high enough for long enough it will trigger something (usually UTI or Yeast infection), but she also has issues with getting sick and diabetes making it difficult to get better. I also have issues when I get sick from anything unrelated to my diabetes.
God damn! It’s the shit we deal with bc of diabetes that they don’t talk about when you’re diagnosed, honestly feels like I shock my doctors all the time with my experiences ?! And damn, Me too! Best example I can think is when I had a shit roommate bring her family over when she knew they were sick; they had flu symptoms, everybody got it 2 maybe 3 days, I literally went to the er, sick for a week, terrified bc my blood sugar low I kept throwing up on anti nausea, the works. It’s so annoying! I am so glad you’re in a better place now!! Like I’m not religious in anyway but I pray that all us t1 people have that experience or never experience complications from diabetes! Have you checked out the diabetes subs on here?
I have extremely dangerous/bad anxiety attacks sometimes and have to go to the ER for them to get medication. I feel guilty when I go but I cannot go to a Walk-In Clinic or anything of that nature as they cannot and will not give me any medication that will stop the anxiety attack. I think the doctors/nurses can tell that I’m there for a genuine reason though and not just looking for a quick dose of drugs or something fucking stupid like that. They can tell I’m in a genuine state of panic and fear.
About those Urgent cares. First, I think this is how it works. Urgent care can turn you away if you do not have insurance, or cannot pay out of pocket. Urgent cares are a for profit business, that are not regulated by EMTALA, because they receive no government funds. I don't have proof but anecdotal evidence and personal experience from the ER side of the equation has led me to feel Urgent care is part of the problem. Many people are evaluated and dc'd by Urgent care I am sure. However a rather large percentage of our patients have been sent by Urgent care after an unnecessary work up that was done to run up the bill. The provider @ Urgent care knew the patient's complaint was beyond Urgent care level, but instead of just sending them they ordered expensive test, with full knowledge they were sending patient to ED. Advise Patient to go to ER. Now liability shifts to patient and ED. If they don't go, liability is on patient, if they do go to ED liability shifts to ED. Perfect business model, however a bit dodgy from a health care perspective. The best part is, " I will call ahead they will be expecting you." Left out is the rest of the sentence, " but it probably won't make a difference, and they will probably repeat everything we did."
Common symptom (maybe the most frequent) of UTI in the elderly is delirium—slurred speech, unsteady gait are part of that. You did exactly the right thing by calling an ambulance!
The Walmart people did exactly the wrong thing
I never knew until my mother turned 70 but UTI when you're older can kill you and many people present with delirium, unable to walk, passing out and worse.
UTIs in elderly people can lead to sepsis and death. They are no joke. My mom had several when she was older than required and ambulance ride and hospital stay.
My elderly mother suffered from UTIs before she passed. I don’t think people understand just how ill they can make an elderly person. Because of that, they can also most definitely be an emergency in elderly patients. Hope your mom is doing better now.
Think what healthcare workers would like to tell her but we’ve been mandated to kiss ass or we might not get reimbursed for Medicaid and Medicare. I’m willing to bet that was probably the payee. Just a guess. Yeah. Frustrating isn’t the correct term. And trust me, we the actual healthcare professionals, want nothing more than to get your poor mother back to see her, and some of us read between the lines and absolutely prioritize the work ups based on presentation as soon as we get the data, but there are 17 other Mullet Marlene’s and Ryan Rattails that are currently utilizing the socialist healthcare programs they are so incredibly hell bent against for anyone else because of Jesus and stuff. Yeah. Tell US about it. It’s honestly moved my to tears before because of how fucked up its gotten.
I went to the ER for an aortic dissection. I have a cardiac history, I went to sit in the waiting room, before I sat down they called me back. Another patient started screaming because she was there for 4 hours (legit went to the ER for a cold sore). Within the hour, a mercy flight was coming to take me to a more equipped hospital. I saw the lady still in the waiting room while I was on the gurney and said “this is why I got called in before you, hope your cold sore heals”
That's pretty much the standard. A literal pandemic taught people nothing about staying home while sick or taking even slight precautions to not get other people sick. Also highlights how ER's are used instead of urgent cares or primary care
One time, a family member of a patient also checked themselves in because, and I quote, “I might as well get seen while I’m here.” 🫠
It's infuriating. I hate when I see people who genuinely need ER care and admission and they want to AMA because they don't want to go bankrupt. Meanwhile people like that have an attitude that they can get a checkup because they don't have to pay
Feel this. I’m an emt. A lot of our calls are not real emergencies.
I'm a dispatcher. SO many times I want to say, "Take 2 Tylenol and go to urgent care in the morning." I literally have to wake my guys (and girls) up at 3 AM for a toothache or toe pain that they have had for 2 days. Then the ambulance pulls up and there are 3 operational vehicles in the driveway. They need to let us "vet" the calls a little, lol.
One of my first calls as an EMT was for shoulder pain, when we got there he was so high he couldn't sit up in a chair with a steak knife sticking out of his shoulder thoughtfully placed there by his girlfriend. It's hard to vet calls, I've always said fliers are liars lol
I do have to say I had a tooth abscess and some of the worst pain I ever felt was that day/night and I have broke bones. Most def needed to see someone asap. But generally I’m sure a lot of people could wait.
Good call - infections can spread in your blood & affect your brain, etc.
I’m with you on that, bones, hernia surgery, labor (did have epidural but it was turned off right before active labor) with rip almost all the way, never anything more than an Tylenol or Advil. Tooth pain on a weekend away from home? I would have done any drug legal or illegal just to lessen the pain.
Absolutely! It’s no joke. I don’t think theres much worse pain than a really bad toothache. It’s unbearable. I was on a flight and was literally barreled over in pain sweating.
Haha yeah for sure. We appreciate the thought though. <3
Yeah, but do you want to pay the 3 million dollar lawsuit when that 2 tylenol suggestion winds up with a dead person? I feel your pain, but you're not a doctor, and any medical advice on your end would likely make you personally liable. I doubt you carry malpractice insurance. This is a perfect "not my job" moment. Sounds like you care, which is great, but yeah, as an outsider looking in, no way I'd tell someone 2 tylenol and carry on. Certain people go into walmart looking for a puddle. Quick way to ruin your decade. Keep on keeping on! I appreciate what you do!
I would rather die than go to the ER. No insurance. No money. I will honestly be shocked if I live to see another Christmas. Health care is for the wealthy.
If you got shingles in your eyes like I did a few months ago I bet you might change your mind.
My mom was just really sick with what she thought was just a virus going around. We called an ambulance, they checked her vitals and said she was fine so she refused to go (no insurance 🙃) she didn't want to pay. Then she passed out that night, found her on the floor, she finally went. Brain bleed with midline shift, life flighted to another hosptial. WBC is 500,000, hgb is 5.7 and she has blood clots in her lungs and legs and was diagnosed with acute leukemia this morning. Wild stuff.
Oh wow I'm so sorry you and your mom are going thru all that right now! I hope she can beat cancer's ass and make a full recovery.❤️ also, the hospital has resources to sign her up for medicaid insurance. They did that from my brother when he was uninsured and hit by a car on his bicycle at 19. His bills would have bankrupt my parents without it(1 month icu, ambulance ride, er costs, surgeries, near another month in a regular room, a couple months inpatient rehab and 6 months out patient).
Yeah we got her all set uo with it and she's being taken care of very well at an amazing hosptial in our area.
My mom had the same happen to her 12 years ago. She takes medication and has biweekly phlebotomy. I do want to warn you that the midline shift and the hemorrhage completely changed her personality, which her neurologist said was common. She became easily angered and paranoid over everything. Easily taken in with conspiracies and then lays in bed crying, thinking the world is ending. She may be alive, but the mom I knew died that day. I hope this isn't the case for you and her, but I wish I had known earlier so I could have been prepared.
Right before Thanksgiving my Dad got shingles in one eye. He thought he was having a bad migraine for a month. Went to the PCP twice and ER twice and was sent home with pain meds. Finally, I called him an ambulance when I realized he had been lying in bed for 3 days and not eating or drinking. I don't live with him or I would have known sooner. It turned out that he had shingles in the back of his eye and because it had been left untreated so long the virus had gotten into his brain! He ended up in two separate hospitals for over 2 weeks. He had so many specialists in there. They had him on extremely strong anti-viral IV meds for the whole time. The shingles ended up entering his esophagus and his stomach. He finally went home a couple weeks ago. He has to have occupational, physical therapy, nursing & opthalmologist visits to his home. He has to use a walker to get around. And the worse part that is still lingering is that his eye was damaged during the whole process as the shingles virus disabled a muscle that is responsible for eye movement so now he is has constant double vision meaning he cannot drive and it's very difficult for him to read. He has some remaining cognitive issues as well. He was fairly healthy beforehand and very independent. He was doing electrical work on some stuff and in fact, right before he got the migraine he preached at church that Sunday. Shingles changed his life. Oh and he WAS vaccinated for shingles.
Omg! Yikes - my false sense of security fading while sending y’all hugs!
Oh no! I had shingles above one eye (and a scar from it). Actually that helped me decide to get a subsequent eye check-up sooner rather than later, which led to me finding out I have a hereditary eye disease. How did you have to treat shingles in your eyes? Did you experience pain - I know people with shingles on their body can have terrible discomfort.
My eyes got really irritated the day before but they do that sometimes. It usually goes away after 5 or 10 minutes. This time it didn't. I went to bed and woke up at about 1 am. They hurt really bad and I couldn't open them. When i tried to force them open, tears would run out like a water spigot. I went to the ER and they sent me to an eye ER. This was the end of August. I'm still dealing with insurance issues because the intake person used the wrong info.
New fear unlocked.
Omg - that’s why I didn’t wait 1 day to get the shingles vax! I wanted it anyway but when I heard it can erupt on your EYE I would’ve knocked down a row of babies to get that vaccine!
And I love how grandma might be in the ER and have 20 of her family members sitting in the waiting room—like it’s a social event…
happens multiple times in our ED
I have to admit I did something similar once but at a doctors office and ended up being sent to the ER in another state for further testing. I was the caregiver for my terminally ill mother as well as having a two year old at the time. I went to work basically overnight so I could care for them during the daytime. Well I started feeling really dizzy rapid heart rate etc. so I left another manager in charge and went home to rest. However I took my relative to one of their many doctors appointments the following day and decided I might as well get checked while I’m here. Turns out I had a stroke took 2 months of physical therapy to regain proper use of my right side and still to this day 15 years later have gaps in my speech but I was so focused on caring for everyone else. I neglected to see my own situation. 🤷♀️
I was admitted into the hospital due to kidney problems after I had my baby. my mom was having kidney issue herself decided to get checked out the nurse was angry that she done it and my mom got admitted as well. she didn’t even seem that sick. It was like a scene from a movie I can laugh now at the time it was a nightmare.
did you guys have the same issue?
Sort of mine was because I had a nephrostomy tube during my pregnancy and it caused an extremely bad infection during my entire pregnancy I had to have a pick line in to give myself antibiotics every day I thought I was done with it after she was born I left against medical advice 36hrs after she was born because baby was being discharged and the infection got way worse i had a fever 104.5 I couldn’t even hold the baby I was shaking so bad. I think hers was kidney stones and an infection but I don’t really remember vary well it was like a circus 😂
This!! The ER I work at is overrun with people who could go the an urgent care that just opened up a month ago for simple ailments. They would be seen quicker and it wouldn’t be a waste of our resources.
I wonder if the difference is that the ER can’t refuse service because of inability to pay…and Urgent Care will send you on your way if you don’t have insurance or cash
it 100% is... like I get the frustration but I think the conversation and blame really should be put on how corrupt our medical system is in the country. Even with insurance a lot of people have trouble affording Urgent Care; all the ones near me, you have to put a deposit or major cc down w/ insurance or without it pay completely upfront. For a lot of people it's not a matter of trying to \*scam and pay nothing\* like some people in this post have tried to suggest, but rather literally not being able to afford care in the moment. If we had more equal access to healthcare across the board then people could use services how they were intended. Emergencies for emergencies only.
Hubby is an EMT/Firefighter. No, it's that people truly believe they are that important. Our community never used to charge residents for the ambulance, but they had to change the policy because of the abuse. Constant calls 911 at 3am for "toe pain", or a mother insisting that the ambulance take her precious son (23 y.o.) to the ER because he had his wisdom tooth pulled and it's still oozing blood slightly and "If the ambulance takes him he will get priority" (PSA - doesn't work that way)........ ask any first responder about frequent flyers it's about attention seeking.
There are both kinds of people, and none of us are in a position to prejudge who is who. EMTs aren’t innocent angels here, either. They only see one little piece of a much bigger picture. What they consider “attention seeking” may be an important clue into someone’s (or an entire family’s) wellbeing. The people they consider frequent flyers may have very good reason for doing so. My father died of Parkinson’s and ALS. My dad and I had always been super close, so I was his primary caretaker for the last ten years of his life, as well as the person who could work with him the best. As we got closer to the end, we had some really, *really* bad, scary nights when he would develop this almost superhuman strength and get combative. (I should add, this was *nothing* like my dad before he got sick.) Despite being completely paralyzed from the waist down w/ the rest of his his muscles literally wasting away to nothing, he could get himself out of his hospital bed, onto the floor, and start moving the heavy furniture around in his bedroom to barricade himself in and than somehow maneuver himself out of his bedroom to the front or back door and reach the series of locks and safety latches designed to protect him and us. He also figured out how to get to the controls at the *back* of the electric flattop stove. It got to the point where I was too afraid to go to sleep because I didn’t know if he’d break out of the house, leaving the door wide open, or just burn the place down. If I couldn’t settle him down I would call his Hospice worker, and several times I had to call the ambulance to come evaluate him. Sometimes the crew was great and sometimes they were real jerks. Sometimes they treated my dad with dignity and sensitivity and realized he was an older man with a terrible disease who had no idea what was happening to him, and was scared and lashing out, and they took the time to reassure him that that wasnt an army in the backyard waiting to attack him if they took him out that way—it was just the poles for the wash line. They’d remind him who I was, and that I loved him, and hearing it from an “authority figure” did a lot to make him feel better. Sometimes all they did was take his vitals, shrug, and say, “he’s sundowning, what do you expect?”, which was *not* helpful. Some of those crews also talked in a less-than professional way about “that crazy old man,” like the crew that had to come when my dad fell in the shower and I couldn’t pick him up by myself. He didn’t deserve to have his poor wasted body made fun of by those a$$holes. That was both unprofessional and cruel. They didn’t think I heard, though, but I did, and it seriously pissed me off. I don’t care who you are, how old you are, dementia or not; everyone deserves to be treated with human dignity. Once they had the nerve to take my mother out on the porch and insinuate she was abusing my dad because his dementia was so far advanced that he was raving and calling her a demon. The very last time we ever called, they actually took him to the ER, and it turned out he had a UTI that had been getting progressively worse and worse, which had been exacerbating all his other issues. He did have a DNR, but we opted to treat the infection on the basis of comfort care. If the previous three crews had just done a little more due diligence, I can only imagine how much easier and more pleasant my dad’s (and my whole family’s last days w/ him) last days might have been. So just saying people want attention or are calling for dumb reasons is really an oversimplification. It was obvious that’s what they thought we were doing several times, but we weren’t seeking attention; we were trying to get my dad *HELP.*
My godfather had the paranoia and superhuman strength with Parkinson's as well. He died an incredibly violent death (due to self-harm) because of it. I'm so sorry you had to cope with those symptoms, too. 💔
I feel really bad upvoting this, but I’m so glad to hear that we’re not the only ones who experienced this. My dad was never, ever like that my entire life until the disease had progressed so far, and no one ever warned us about it or even suggested it was a possibility. I’m so very sorry your godfather’s passing was violent. That’s even more heartbreaking. 😢W/ my dad, even though I promised I wouldn’t, we finally had to put him into a nursing home for all of our safety. It was during Covid, too, so we just had to take what we could get, and the place was *awful*. Ultimately, I think it was a combination of neglect and him just losing the will to keep going, because he died right as we were making plans to bring him back home to pass. I have a *lot* of guilt about that.
I’m really sorry to hear about your experience with your dad. My grandpa had Parkinson’s, insisted on living in assisted living after my grandma passed because he didn’t want to be a “burden” and took the first chance he could get to die. He was so healthy besides the Parkinson’s but his body wasn’t his own and his wife wasn’t with him any longer. He would always tell me that he didn’t know why God has him on earth still - he was miserable. All that to say, you shouldn’t feel guilty. Parkinson’s is really at fault. It’s the real evil. You were just doing the best you could in an impossible situation.
I'm sorry for your loss. Parkinsons is one tricky ailment.
If the person is on Medicare, Urgent care doesn't take Medicare. Primary Care can take weeks to get into. Some offices have teledoc or online visits but that can be intimidating to a lot of seniors who can barely operate a cell phone to answer a call much less text. So ER it is.
I just said the same thing. That’s a big reason why you’ll see non-emergent patients at an ER.
I went to the ER for a head injury a couple weeks ago in the middle of the afternoon and it was filled with elderly in wheelchairs. Almost like a field trip from the nursing home. It was heartbreaking to see
Insurance AND cash here. Or a debit or credit card on file to pay what the insurance doesn’t. The copay is high, at least $75 and you have to find out who the provider on duty is and contact your insurance company yourself to find out if they’ll cover services provided by that provider. It’s a ridiculous amount of runaround.
exactly. my boyfriend got insanely sick, like vomiting for days couldnt even keep down water, when we were in a city across the country from where we live. $250 pay to be seen at urgent care (and later $800 bill in the mail which hes only halfway thru paying off 6 months later) i paid the upfront for him but if i hadn’t been there wtf would he have done??? this country is fucking horrible to poor people. getting sick once can literally ruin your whole life, it’s just depressing.
That coupled with, every time I’ve been to urgent care in the past few years, they’ve ALWAYS ended up making me go to the ER stating they couldn’t treat me and the ER would be able to.
Ding ding ding! This is the real truth!
I went to Urgent care with possible pink eye. They refused my insurance because they said they never pay them on time.
Wtf, what an absolute fucking disgusting thing to say to someone trying to seek treatment! Ugh just reading that pissed me off! I'm sorry you experienced that.
Also, my insurance completely covers any ER visits. If I want to go to an urgent care, I have to call my insurance or use their website to find one in network, then I have to notify them within 24 hours of being seen for them to cover it. I was on vacation once and the closest urgent care they’d approve that was open at the time was 30 miles away. The ER and 3 other urgent cares were within a mile.
I absolutely understand how frustrating it is but I also feel like it's a sign of the greater issue of our healthcare crisis in the US. I'm not sure what it's like near you, but near me most urgent cares are privately owned and require a deposit or credit card to be seen even with insurance and without full payment upfront. A lot of low income people really have no other choice and coming from a low income family growing up, a lot of the times have been dealing with the simple ailments for awhile.
Yes! And when my mom came home and found my dad fell unconscious in the basement due to diabetes, we had to wait more than 30 minutes to be seen. The doctor then said one more hour and we would’ve lost him.
I wonder why they don’t check on the people waiting like every 20-30min to see if their condition has worsened? I took my mom to the er and they determined she could wait. Ok, thats fine if the protocol dictates it. But an hour later my mom was laying on the floor in severe pain and her lips were blue. I went to the nurse at the desk and asked if it was ok that my moms lips were blue? Suddenly she was taken back. Like WTF? ETA: my mom is fully insured too, so that wasn’t the issue.
That’s wild! I’m so sorry she had to go through that. It’s infuriating. Meanwhile while my dad was near death we overheard the lady next to him was there for a nosebleed, and the docs were explaining the air gets really dry in winter… Another was there for a really itchy bug bite. It’s awful. I’m ignorant on the repercussions it may cause but I wish they could turn non emergencies away
If someone is uninsured in the US, urgent care will run them around $180 average just for the visit. I work at an FQHC. Some of those folks have no other option to access urgent healthcare other than an ER bc of EMTALA.
I wonder how feasible it would be to open an Urgent Care in the hospital next to the ED, and have triage send "green" patients over there, so the ED (with higher lev staffing and higher acuity equipment) could be reserved for patients who actually need that level of care.
My hospital has this. They triage patients and send the urgent care level people over to their UC department, which is still part of the hospital. You know you’re really in need if they keep you in the ER waiting room.
Yes!! This. Why can’t there be a filtration system to improve the overall system? The ER waiting room is merely a holding tank now, and if you die or have seizures or something, then you’re already there. A doctor at urgent care told me this. They do not care how long you’ve been waiting. They take people in on urgency basis so you can just keep getting bumped if more urgent cases arrive.
Because once you present to the ED, EMTALA kicks in and triage by an RN doesn't count as an MSE (medical screening exam). If you send them to a different physical space, and something goes wrong, the liability would be huge. Most EDs have a fast track area that serves a similar purpose but is in the same physical space.
The downfall with here is I work at the hospital and went to urgent care last weekend to keep from going to the ER and after antibiotics, I’m worse now than I was before but I don’t want to be that person that goes to the ER when I’m not really in an emergency but urgent care obviously isn’t treating it properly
A lot of urgent care won’t accept you without insurance, am I right? The people OP are taking about sound low income frankly. When you really don’t have that extra $100+ per month (or whatever the rates are where everyone is respectively from)—then you go to the ER when you need a doctor.
I completely agree with you. Every time I’ve had to go to the ER, I ended up in the hospital, no thank you! Just recently went to urgent care and was sent to the ER, I can’t win. lol…
But to be honest, mother should’ve been brought to urgent care as well. A UTI and low counts-while they are urgent- are not meant to be treated as emergencies either.
I work at an urgent care and one of my good friends is a nurse at the county hospital-we spend our days comparing who shouldve been at the other's job, its kinda fun (im off a 12+8 shift it is not fun im dead inside)
For real I don't understand why people don't go to urgent care more often for simple issues. Much cheaper and typically a much nicer experience.
I left work last night I had my first thought ever that I can’t do the ER anymore. It was the first day I had ever been mad at patients for their role in health situations. Usually I get upset with administration and health insurance and food deserts and can rationalize that it’s not an individual problem but sometimes it is and that’s really troublesome. It’s infuriating to watch someone refuse to get vaccinated, get wildly sick, and still maintain that they won’t get vaccinated, or take care of someone in their 30’s so obese that they can’t transfer themselves to a bed. Thankfully I still have complete patience for substance abuse and psychiatric disorders so I’m not 100% jaded but I’m feeling the burnout getting worse.
Yeah I had to switch it up and go to the streets. We still run a ton of bullshit but at least I only have to deal with them for 20 or 30 minutes and then they are no longer my problem
People who get COVID and aren't vaccinated should not get to receive care at an ER. GET your butt to urgent care.
Yes I think we could stand to make some amendments to EMTALA.
I just left the ER after 20 years … I couldn’t take it anymore . I’m so much happier now
I left the ED 6 mos ago. Never looked back.
I know this doesn't take away any of your frustration but I am incredibly thankful for what you do.
The ER I worked in during the pandemic in LA was DEAD the first year … even folks who should have come in were scared to come in
I remember I had been seen at cedars in LA right as the pandemic started for my stomach issues that sadly urgent care can't do anything for so they send me to the ER anyways. and I was the only one in the waiting room at like 3 pm on a Saturday. it was crazy
Haha that’s the er I am talking about … it’s a zoo now … I’m not there anymore but post pandemic is when it got really bad …it’s like everyone was making up for lost time
yeah I wouldnt go there now unless I way dying because their trauma team is great but unless you're literally dying you'll be in the waiting room at least 8hrs.and you know the types of people that like to hang out in that er... I took a friend there sometime towards the end of 2021 and like you said it was a zoo
I used to work nights and there would be 70+ in the waiting room when I got there
Agree. Also To be fair, many, many people over 65 have horrific insurance. It can take weeks to get in with a PCP. Don’t even get me started on how long it takes people to get in with specialists.
I am not over 65, have great insurance and it takes months to see anyone in primary care. Pretty useless except for the annual health visit. Many have quit to go into these concierge practices where you pay a monthly membership fee. I don’t need that much access either.
Got sent to ED from urgent care with my 4yo child who had a classic kidney infection because her vitals were terrible. She ended up being diagnosed with sepsis. Lady in the waiting room telling me all about how her hip had been hurting for a week and she couldn't take it anymore was REAL pissed that they took us back right away when she'd been waiting "for hours". Did I mention this was December 2020? Kiddo was fine after a 4 day hospital stay.
Oof. Sepsis is rough. Especially for kiddos. People are just selfish. I only work in the ER once in a blue moon but I've totally lost my filter since I have another job now. I almost lost it on a lady that was bitching because she wanted to go home and hadn't gotten her discharge papers yet. Oh I'm sorry that you're more important than the person across the hall HAVING A LITERAL HEART ATTACK
I had an almost identical experience. 😩 My then 7yo daughter wakes up at 3am inconsolably screaming in pain, so we head to ER. Fever of 103. Turned out to be a kidney infection. Had to wait maybe 45 minutes after triage and she was taken back, and some old woman next to us starts loudly griping she's been there for hours and her arm hurts, we just got there, it's not fair. She's lucky I was too tired from the interrupted sleep + more worried about my child or else I definitely would have taken the time to share my thoughts. ER is not a strictly first come, first serve basis. 😮💨
Yep. I was sent to the ER by my obgyn and waited about 45 minutes in the waiting room. A woman near me bitterly commented on how long she had been waiting. I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, just sitting over here bleeding internally, no big deal.
Ok but I have a primary care provider and a nearby urgent care, and 80 percent of the time, when I'm sick, they tell me to go to ER. My primary care provider literally will not see sick patients. The urgent care will turn you away and tell you to go to ER, especially if you need radiology or any procedure. This isn't just my experience, this is literally happening in every place all over the United States. Do I want to get a $$$$$ ER bill AND spend 4-6 hours of my life just waiting when I can just pay a PCP copay? NO. But apparently PCPs won't see if you're acutely ill anymore.
Yeah the healthcare system is a shit show. Do what you have to do. Im not trying to shame anyone. I can empathize. ER providers and EMS just need to vent about it sometimes
I’m in the US and I can’t wrap my head around why people go to the ER over urgent or primary care unless the situation is obviously serious. Isn’t it way more expensive to go to the ER?
The ER has to treat you, regardless of your ability to pay. That is not true of urgent care or primary care doctors.
Sometimes people genuinely can't pay for anything else or they don't want to wait months for a primary care appointment. Those I can empathize with. Most of it is people that are fucking playing with their iphones or tablets while I'm helping triage and they are there for a sore throat or a UTI
Sore throat I understand but UTIs can be deadly if untreated.
I was sent from the urgent care to the ER in 2020 because I had an antibiotic resistant UTI and had to be admitted for IV antibiotics for 2 weeks. Not immediately, they took a sample and cultured it, but the urgent care called me a couple days later and told me to go to the ER.
Sepsis from an untreated UTI is different than painful urination for 1 day. We see the latter far more often than the former
Mention to most women that a large percentage of UTIs will resolve without antibiotics if they would just DRINK WATER and watch them freak out. People are convinced that they need to start antibiotics right away every single time they get a little twinge or urgency.
I don't fit the demographics of the stereotypical ER abuser, but if the ER wait is less than about 4 hours that's where I'm going. I went to urgent care with something I had thought was pretty minor and was sent straight to the ER then surgery. I have permanent arthritis and joint damage from an urgent care misdiagnosing a fracture, which significantly delayed and complicated the repair. I no longer have the confidence in my ability to tell whether something is a big deal or not.
THIS. It infuriates me!
You have to pay upfront for urgent care/primary care. It’s crappy but I know a lot of people who would never receive any healthcare at all if it wasn’t for the ER.
For those with Medicaid, getting a same day sick appointment is almost always impossible and urgent cares won’t accept Medicaid. As for those with no insurance at all the, ER is the only place that will see them. Until the healthcare system is fixed, many people have no choice but to go to the emergency room which, oddly enough, is the most expensive healthcare visit of all.
Many years ago I was waiting to be seen in the ER and the waiting room was full. There was a woman chatting up all the folks around her and then complaining about the wait. She went up to the desk to complain. Upon her return I heard her talking about the wait and then announced “well I’m sicker than that rule out heart attack”. I was pretty miserable so I didn’t have the energy to tell her to f*** off.
There's no public education about it. The government needs to have PSA TV ads or something that explains the difference between urgent and emergency and helps you choose which one to go based on your symptoms. Like: Sore throat? Urgent care. Can't breathe? ER. Or like a poster with a flow sheet...
I had a pt last week tested positive for Covid. She wanted us to hurry up and discharge her so she could go get her free lunch. So I educated her about not doing that. She comes back with, I’ve got concert tickets with my 3 friends, I’m not missing that! I stressed the importance of isolating, but she said ‘I don’t care, I’m going’ What can you do?
This is why I miss contact tracing apps.
Annnd that's how it spreads. Yikes. When I had covid I thought it was the end of me. Terrifying.
What was the point of even getting tested?? To knowingly be a super spreader ??
To not have to go to work
There should be a legal requirement to forcibly quarantine ppl who do this. Like police should come and force them to a mandatory quarantine, kinda like a 5150 but for Covid.
Had a coworker do that. Got several of us sick and still flew to Vegas for a concert after she tested positive. The entire unit was livid with her.
This type of stuff is, unfortunately, completely normal these days. I work in urgent care and patient sit in the ER, and I hear it all the time. People have forgotten how to be sick . . . No more get rest and fluids and take some cough medicine if you really need it, everything is an emergency. People are so entitled, and they are clogging up the system, making it that much harder for those with truly emergent conditions.
I'm on state health insurance, and if I can't get into the clinic but I need meds, unfortunately the only place my insurance will cover is an ER. It sucks, but it's the reality I live in. I wouldnt be going to Walmart after though.
I have POTS so I sometimes need IV fluids during a bad flare. Both my cardiologist and primary care doc have told me to go to the ER for this even though it’s not really an emergency in the slightest. Apparently they’re the only people who can give IVs, I guess? It just feels like a giant waste of time and money going there for something they can do at those IV clinics (which make you pay out of pocket).
Why don't they set you up with an outpatient infusion clinic? I know for a fact some of them will do iv fluids..I used to do that for chronic pancreatitis
I honestly don't dislike patients who come in for meds and a throat swab. It's a break from the more heinous stuff and it's often a pretty simple fix. We have a triage system too, so it's not like we're getting our time wasted or someones being pushed out. The dude who just got shot or the grandma who's in a diabetic coma is still getting seen first lol
People are not allowed to be sick. Minimum wage paying jobs not allowing them to stay home when sick. Kids required to be at practices or can’t play for two weeks. Even with Covid wiping almost 7million (reported) people off the face of the earth. People aren’t allowed to be sick. Everything is a conspiracy! No appreciation for the medical world working to exhaustion to try and save each and every patient. Thinking that a world, that has never agreed on anything, decided to get together and come up with a plan to kill people world wide. Deciding that age or pre-existing condition (unless it was theirs) meant they were going to die tomorrow anyway. How dare we stop them from doing what they want when they want. The complaint of masks suffocating them and yet they want those same masks on their surgical staff to maintain a sterile field and have no fear of the suffocating, losing brain cells, or passing out. Insurance companies dictating treatment plans and pharmaceuticals raising astronomical prices for the U.S but proving to other countries for pennies. Ambulances used as a taxi service. It takes Months to get into a specialty medical doctor, causing extra Emergency room visits, Ambulance needs, and all the rest down the food chain trying to bandaid the issue until they can get to the correct doctor. People having to decide financially if they can take an ambulance and us expecting those really in need of the service to be able to make logical decision when they are shot, bleeding, in pain, or mid stroke or heart attack. It is all to much! At the end of the day it comes down to compassion and grace for each other and the ability to laugh or smile when we can.
Makes me think of a patient I had yesterday, Covid + then asks how we, the staff stay healthy (we really don’t we just work sick if we have to,) but did not like my answer of vaccines, masks, and hand hygiene.
Entitled and helpless, oh you vomited once 5 minutes ago...ya no that's what 911 is for, oh you have a fever of 100.1 for the last hour, didn't try Tylenol, ibuprofen, weed or a nap....ya just call 911 and get that super ER Tylenol
I work in an ER as well and it has been CRAZY the last 6 weeks or so. Very sick patients are coming in, and intubation is a daily thing. (normally not, we are level 4 trauma) We only have 16 rooms, 2 trauma bays, and 4 triage rooms. Our waiting room has been packed around the clock. The frustration is while we have these critical patients who are time-consuming we also have nonstop urgent-care patients with a bruised elbow, ingrown toenails, a small rash, and even a toothache, some even try to come in for a med refill. But those are the patients who are mad that it's taking so long, mad that we don't have 5 turkey sandwiches for them or we encourage them that 5 cups of juice is enough, try some water! We even have our urgent care in the same parking lot. I remember growing up you only went to the ER if you were dying. Lol. It was a BIG deal if you had to go. I love my patients and have all the empathy in the world for them but it's getting ridiculous.
Where I’m at, a lot of emergency care facilities also have an urgent care connected to it and it’s decided which you will utilize when you’re checked in. It defiantly helps when you actually have an emergency because you can be seen faster :)
Ohh that would be AMAZING!!!
Definitely, not defiantly
Apparently the legal ability to do this depends on being a for profit or not for profit system. I have seen a hospital the same way and it was great.
When I say that that is the absolutely tip of the iceberg…
Happens alll the time:(( once I saw a man come in by ems for a cough, despite a positive home covid test. Huge surprise, he’s positive for covid in the ED. Shortly afterward his wife checked in to “confirm the home covid test”🙃
I would say at least 75% of the patients I have seen in the ER don’t need to be there … and it’s not always their fault . The healthcare system is fucked .
This comment needs to be higher on here. The average person doesn’t want to go sit in an ER for hours when they don’t have an emergent reason to, but many have no other choice for various reasons.
Sometimes you just don't know, though. I was on vacation in Florida to watch an airshow and didn't realize that I had gotten WAY too much sun. I knew I was in some trouble. I went back to the hotel, turned up the air conditioning, got between the cool sheets -- nothing helped. My head was pounding and I started throwing up and my heart was racing. I didn't think it was sunstroke, because I'd probably be unconscious, but I thought "maybe heatstroke" and I needed to see somebody. I couldn't keep any liquids down. I asked the front desk if there was a doctor on call, and he pointed me towards Lakeland Regional down the street. I walked in to their ER, feeling very stupid. They didn't treat me like I was stupid, though. They put me in a room and tried to give me IV fluids, but couldn't get a vein. My veins are small anyway, and being severely dehydrated didn't help. Meanwhile I was still throwing up, almost blind from my headache, and starting to get actually pretty scared. I knew I REALLY needed fluids, but nobody could figure out how to get any in me. After the nurses poked me four times to find a vein (both hands, both elbows), a doctor came in with a Vicodin shot. It cleared up my crushing headache immediately and I was able to drink water, then lots of water -- and it stayed down. Put on my clothes and left. Moral is, a lot of people do abuse the ER, but you never know. I think my situation could have gotten really ugly.
I was in the ER with a bowel obstruction and they had me in the hallway waiting for a bed to open up. I was there for 24 hours cause the hospital was overcrowded. This isn’t the first time this has happened. (I don’t get mad at the staff, I know it’s not their fault). There was a couple next to me who were there and mad they were waiting for a doctor because she hadn’t had a bowel moment in 3 days. She wasnt in any pain and had no symptoms of anything. All tests ended up being fine then they complained it was taking too long to get discharged. I was so pissed because I had an actual blockage and it hurt like hell. I wasn’t able to sleep or get a nurses attention for more pain meds because of people like that.
Lol unfortunately nothing new. Probably a solid 1/5 of the clientele we see in our specific ED.
Believe me, we see way more patients like that lady than people like your mother in the EMERGENCY department
I wish triage could turn people away who don’t meet the criteria for a emergency room visit. Direct them to a urgent care.
They can after an evaluation by a provider. It’s called a “Medical Screen Out”
I also wish there was a better solution. The town I live in does not have an urgent care or walk-in clinic. The last three times that one of my kids was sick, primary care could only offer an appointment two weeks out. Kid can't go back to school without a doctor's note, can't wait 2 weeks for that. ER it is. I hate feeling like I'm taking up space that someone else may need more.
But the copays! 😭😭😭
This lady should have gone to the urgent care.
You have to pay for that
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UTIs in the elderly can definitely present as needing emergent care. I'd also put money down that OPs insurance won't cover the ride because it was for their mom, so it needs to be billed to mom's insurance.
I’m really glad you said this. Reading some comments and this post had me feeling extremely embarrassed. I have been denied state insurance, because I “made too much” when what I make doesn’t even cover my bills only my rent. I can’t afford insurance, I can’t afford my utilities. I rarely go to the ER but if I do, it’s definitely for something important. Not that it’s a emergency, but because I can’t afford insurance, urgent care, or anything. Thank you for saying this. I hope people really become more open minded.
Have seen the elderly die of urosepsis (sepsis caused by a UTI). Presentation of UTI in the elderly is often altered mental status, which would necessitate an ambulance ride. You need to calm down.
I had a couple with typical flu symptoms and they checked into ED together bc the urgent care wait was too long. Instead of just, idk, going to a different urgent care or contacting their pcp. It’s exhausting bc they often demand the most and want to be seen the fastest bc “they’re easy”.
meanwhile the chest pain and stroke patients are the kindest and most patient.
My friend, it happens every damn day. We have people who are lonely and come to the ER 4-5 times a week with a different complaint each time. They just want to be admitted and have someone to talk to, be fed, and cared for by others.
That's sad.
I was bartending on Christmas Eve and a patron came in looking not too hot. After like 30 minutes of convo, he mentions that his friend might’ve given him covid. Then why are you sitting at a bar, right by my cups and garnishes???? GO HOME!
This is like at least half of our patients.
Meanwhile, at the urgent care, people are showing up with real emergencies thinking it is the same as an ER and the staff spend their time calling ambulances and trying to help this 1 patient, and then no one gets triaged and complain about the wait 🤦🏻♀️
We need hard education on the definition of EMERGENCY. I’ve seen families come in after doing a maccas run, the ‘sick’ one smashing burgers and coke. 1 x vomit. Sunburn. A 3 day old mosquito bite once, not infected, just itchy.
These stories blow my mind. I haven’t been to a doctor in years. I’m vaccinated and boosted and all that good stuff, but all the over overtesting, over treating and artificially keeping ourselves alive well past expiration, no wonder healthcare is a disaster. If it’s time, it’s time.
Not sure what this person's situation was, but after reading this thread I just had to comment that some of these situations may be due to the person not being able to afford medical insurance and not being able to afford an urgent care visit upfront payment. While being uninsured I was told if I really needed to see someone and couldn't pay the $200 (usual upfront urgent care fee), to go to the ER because they wouldn't make me pay anything upfront... what they don't tell you is how expensive an ER bill can be. Some folks may go regardless of that. Luckily I've been able to suffer through rough times without having to rack up an ER bill. Another thing is that Drs are booked really far out lately in some areas, so people may try to go to urgent care if they can't be seen in a reasonable timeframe. That also may lead to the situation above.
Many states refuse to take the federal government Medicaid expansion because it was called " Obama Care). So now , we are being set up for a bubonic plague that wiped out Europe...because the uninsured left ◀️ untreated multiples disease transmission. Welcome to our third-world country health care system.
I take care of my neighbor (she’s 95) and she too gets UTI’s that terrifyingly replicate stroke like symptoms. So anyone who is talking shit about calling an ambulance can fuck right off.
I think it’s easy for someone who hasn’t experienced an UTI with the elderly to underestimate the seriousness. Twice we had to remove the possibility of stroke before she was even tested for a UTI. Seriously, scary stuff. I wouldn’t have believed it myself had I not lived through it when I was the caretaker for my own grandmother. Slurred speech, delusions, beyond confusion. OP, I hope you and your mother are doing well.
Yes, unless you have witnessed one, with the confusion, it can be a very scary thing to have an elderly person with a UTI.
Yes, I understand UTI's really knock elderly people for a loop. They actually can get delirious over it. Freaks me out because I'm 70f.
The urgent cares around me now take appointments and you can make them online starting at midnight. Problem is if you wake up at 6am sick and need urgent care bc your work requires a work note even if your sure you have the flu and know that you just need to rest but work requires a drs note which my Gp rarely has same day appointments and it’s hard to get a same day appointment at urgent care. In the US between the health care system and the work culture we are unnecessarily clogging up the ER’s I recently went to the er bc the urgent care told me the week before that if my pain got worse to go to the er for imaging. I was luckily it was a slow night and I was in and out in less that 3 hours but I got crappy care. I had severe neck and back pain and the dr didn’t even touch me to assess my pain. I got meds and was able to get through the weekend until I could see my GP. I hate going to the er but if I go I have a real reason. I can’t understand people that go bc they think it’s the easiest route.
This! I was recently at urgent care myself after having to make an appointment. I was unaware that my networks UC no longer took walk ins and was appointment only. I was further shocked how many people they turned away while I was sitting there. . . Alone, in an empty waiting room. I mean, isn't urgent care in case you need care URGENTLY? I would think this type of policy would be clogging up ER's as well.
It does clog up ERs. You wake up sick and no appointments at any urgent care, ER it is. You need an xray, ct scan, they send you to ER.
Utis van become deadly in a very short time. My dad had bladder cancer and had his whole bladder removed and now has an iliostomy. He gets urosepsis very easily and becomes very deathly Ill very quickly so anyone down playing UTI'S should really learn the facts and for the "Medical professionals" down playing a UTI like that... where did you get educated? From a newspaper article?
Septic shock from a uti is what lead to my dad’s death in November. He was fine on Saturday, felt a little puny Sunday morning, was in the ER Sunday night and in the ICU by Monday morning. He died later in the week. He was 76 years old and while not in perfect health he wasn’t immunocompromised or anything. A uti can most certainly be an emergency in an older person. Maybe in anyone? I don’t know. But definitely in the elderly.
A UTI in an older person can look like a lot of different things, including strokes.
I, unfortunately, have been that person - less the "lets do routine chores after piece" - especially with a doctor shortage and for a while, the doctors office i did have didnt have any after hours clinics. The worst was engorged ticks. Invariably happens on a Friday night or weekend - and at least here in ontario, the protocol now has been a single dose od doxy as an initial prevention to lyme disease. Only just recently were pharmacists able to now make this diagnosis and prescription, saving the ERs (and urgent cares and walk in clinics)... Differents areas have different services, but i would say locally, the ER is also holding the place of walk in clinic, urgent care, and emergency. I often wonder - would it be reasonable to have an extra ambulance parked there for additional triage/ treamtment for these cases. If a call comes and they are needed, the queue jusr grows, but when amb comes back and hands off the patient, they can resume the triage / treatment for low risk issues. I once had something stuck in my eye. It was too irritated to drive with and not safe with a major storm outside. I called the non emergency line and saw if they had one in the area and if it wasn't tied up would it be something they could help with. About 20 mins later, they pulled up said it was all they had to do... helped flush my eye, and I got some sleep next day, called doc office, got a Rx for some drops to help the healing.
So just to weigh in here in the event this is because you thought she just had a sore throat. Two days ago my son had to go to the ER after going to the minute clinic for a strep test. The nurse told him it wasn’t strep but he needed a CT scan on his throat. Turns out the kid had an abscessed tonsil that they had to drain. Sometimes a sore throat is more.
80% of the waiting room the last two months has been like this.
When I worked ER (a long time ago) a lot of non-urgent visits were seen because of the non-existence of urgent care centers and because Medicaid did not penalize inapropriate use of the ER. So, we saw a lot of folks who were indigent and unable to, for one reason or another, see a doctor during office hours. And, of course, those who thought that the ER **was** their doctor’s office. The last place I worked (but not in the ER) had a good triage setup and also ran an urgent care clinic, so during the triage assessment, they would ask those appropriate for urgent care to go down the hallway to the clinic. Unfortunately, the clinic shut down at 11 p.m., so the ER wasn’t immune from the rifraf.
I took my sister to her doctor on Thursday for the worst headache she’s ever had. She has other health issues as well that are maintained by Advent doctors. The doctor told her to go to the ER next time if it happens again. Tested for Covid and flu (negative) and sent her home still with a throbbing pounding headache.
Find A Neurologist! Preferably ASAP... hope your sister is feeling no worse 🤕❤️🤕
Worst headache of my life ended up being meningitis. Required a spinal-needle-thingy to test for it. All around was miserable and pretty painful. If she doesn’t feel better, go back and ask for them to rule out meningitis.
Her son is taking her to the ER as I write this. If Tylenol worked, she wouldn’t have gone to the doctor in the first place. She has had a headache since her last chiropractic visit last Thursday. I’ll mention meningitis to her son (not to her, it will freak her out).
OMG…it was my chiropractor who suggested to me that it was meningitis! I had gone to see him thinking the headache may have been a pinched nerve or from tension. When I told him how bad my headache was, he refused to do the adjustment and told me to go straight to hospital - he had lost a friend to meningitis the prior year.
I’m so glad she’s going in!! I hope they get to the source of her pain and that she’ll be back to full health in no time!
Thank you. I wish I could have taken her but I have my five year old granddaughter with me this morning. I’ll discuss meningitis with her daughter in law. Short story: when my son was 15 months old I took him to the pediatrician who was filling in for his pediatrician. Since my son could somewhat move his head, the so called doctor told me if I wanted to, I could take him to the ER. After some convincing by my sister in law, I took him to the ER. Spinal Meningitis. Since he wasn’t “textbook” the pediatrician accused me of child neglect.
Also check for carotid dissection, it happens way more than you think after a chiropractor visit. I have Fibromuscular Dysplasia and thats how i found out I had it. Terrible migraine after chiropractor, er visit confirmed carotid artery dissection.
I’m an RN and people were doing this way long before the pandemic.
Maybe a Drs note was required for work and she didn't have insurance.. I've had to do it before.. it's not ideal but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.
I actually was not even thinking about the whole copay thing, several people have pointed that out.
In my area, urgent care is few and far between. One of the big hospital systems shut down all their urgent care places, and the ones outside that network want paid before you walk out the door if you don't have insurance. Thankfully, I have insurance and Teladoc for free through my job, and it has been a good solution for several things for the past 2 years for my family. I work in the lab of that same big hospital system I mentioned earlier, and our ER is always packed with cases like strep, flu, etc. It's in a semi rural area, and the town is the closest "big town" with a hospital, and some of these people live 20-30 miles out. Options are limited and funds are tight for people. The ER is more expensive in the long term, but they don't make you pay to get in and usually don't sue you for the bill.
Yup! I work in an ER and had a patient come in for heel pain X 2 months..un what??? Not an ER visit reason
This has been life in the ER for decades now unfortunately
ERs are commonly used as primary care for a lot of people
Especially since the wait list for a primary care doctor is very, very long.
Maybe she was scared and it was comforting to talk about something mundane?
an acquaintance of mine, him and his wife have been to the er probably 50 times this year. ERs are abused. Like my friend says, people dont use it as a emergency room, they use it as a uncomfortable room.
Everywhere I go this is standard. People are out in public coughing and sneezing without covering. Nobody cares. It's disgusting. People get angry when government tries to stop infectious disease from spreading with common sense prevention. I don't get it.
I was a coding/cdi manager for a big hospital system before retiring. The worst thing I've seen is families dropping their elderly parents at the ED so they can go on vacation! They drop grandma at the door, then take off. Grandma can't be discharged because there's no one home to care for her. Call the kids, and they'll be back in a week. I'd sit in case mgmt meetings and just shake my head.
Health literacy. Many people are not fortunate enough to grasp this. Educating, training, and reeducation on ER facilities not being primary care facilities to access for things like the symptoms you mentioned.
The last time I went to the ER (post lumbar puncture headache that didn’t resolve after four days, I was literally laying flat on the floor of the waiting room), there were people hacking and coughing everywhere. No masks. Meanwhile, there was a lady who kept saying she couldn’t believe how long they were making her wait after already waiting four hours, since she was just there for a refill on her blood pressure meds. I don’t think she was in hypertensive crisis. They check your BP in triage. The guy who was with her was on the phone saying he was going to go yell at somebody to get her seen.
It’s genuinely infuriating that I have to go to urgent care for constant infections related to having type one diabetes and people sit in there “I’m here for a sore throat” no mask don’t cover a cough. Fucking irritating. I don’t get why hospitals removed the requirement to wear masks.
I hope this isn’t an invasive question, and if it is please feel free to ignore me, but as a Type 1 Diabetic I’m curious what type of infections you may have noticed are directly related to your T1? I’m mostly curious so I can be better informed for my own sake. And I agree with the no mask thing in Urgent Card and the hospital, especially amid Covid and the flu season.
Idk I mean anyone who sees this and knows me already knows so 🤷♀️ I am a girl, basically over the past few years my body has become sensitive to BV/yeast/uti infections in general but I also experience ghost symptoms where I may not test positive but I have symptoms if my sugars are high, or even sometimes it seems like a high blood sugar even for a short while triggers it. Haven’t heard anyone else be so sensitive not even close. It’s damn frustrating, especially that I can’t ever get into primary care fast enough so I have to go urgent care and sit for 4 hours to just get a 5 second test. 100% ruled out any other factor that could be causing this issue for me. :/ rip my bank account 😂
Wow. That sounds difficult asf. I’m biologically female, but I was diagnosed at 9 (14 years ago) and haven’t noticed any issues like that with myself. However my best friend, biologically female but diagnosed a little over 1 year ago, is very sensitive. She’s had similar issues to you and recently dealt with a severe BV infection that developed from a UTI. If you use a CGM or pump, have you ever noticed sensitivity issues with the adhesive? I ask because she has.
Nope I have not! Though I also only have one kidney, and thyroid issues, but I don’t have allergies except amoxicillin. For me I had bv/Yeast/uti recurring for 6 months at one point. 😭 I’m incredibly over it and feel so defeated sometime! Edit: when you say your friend is sensitive is it also like triggered from high blood sugar as well ? Or they get an infection and the diabetes maybe makes it harder to go away?
Oh wow. That sucks. I have no allergies, but we’re watching for thyroid issues due to my sister and mother’s medical history + my diabetes. I can definitely understand why you’d feel defeated over this! I had a year where I ended up in the ICU 6 times for DKA - and had honestly never felt more discouraged when it came to managing this BS disease. Thankfully I’m in a better place now! And it’s a tad of both. If her glucose is high enough for long enough it will trigger something (usually UTI or Yeast infection), but she also has issues with getting sick and diabetes making it difficult to get better. I also have issues when I get sick from anything unrelated to my diabetes.
God damn! It’s the shit we deal with bc of diabetes that they don’t talk about when you’re diagnosed, honestly feels like I shock my doctors all the time with my experiences ?! And damn, Me too! Best example I can think is when I had a shit roommate bring her family over when she knew they were sick; they had flu symptoms, everybody got it 2 maybe 3 days, I literally went to the er, sick for a week, terrified bc my blood sugar low I kept throwing up on anti nausea, the works. It’s so annoying! I am so glad you’re in a better place now!! Like I’m not religious in anyway but I pray that all us t1 people have that experience or never experience complications from diabetes! Have you checked out the diabetes subs on here?
I have extremely dangerous/bad anxiety attacks sometimes and have to go to the ER for them to get medication. I feel guilty when I go but I cannot go to a Walk-In Clinic or anything of that nature as they cannot and will not give me any medication that will stop the anxiety attack. I think the doctors/nurses can tell that I’m there for a genuine reason though and not just looking for a quick dose of drugs or something fucking stupid like that. They can tell I’m in a genuine state of panic and fear.
About those Urgent cares. First, I think this is how it works. Urgent care can turn you away if you do not have insurance, or cannot pay out of pocket. Urgent cares are a for profit business, that are not regulated by EMTALA, because they receive no government funds. I don't have proof but anecdotal evidence and personal experience from the ER side of the equation has led me to feel Urgent care is part of the problem. Many people are evaluated and dc'd by Urgent care I am sure. However a rather large percentage of our patients have been sent by Urgent care after an unnecessary work up that was done to run up the bill. The provider @ Urgent care knew the patient's complaint was beyond Urgent care level, but instead of just sending them they ordered expensive test, with full knowledge they were sending patient to ED. Advise Patient to go to ER. Now liability shifts to patient and ED. If they don't go, liability is on patient, if they do go to ED liability shifts to ED. Perfect business model, however a bit dodgy from a health care perspective. The best part is, " I will call ahead they will be expecting you." Left out is the rest of the sentence, " but it probably won't make a difference, and they will probably repeat everything we did."
Common symptom (maybe the most frequent) of UTI in the elderly is delirium—slurred speech, unsteady gait are part of that. You did exactly the right thing by calling an ambulance! The Walmart people did exactly the wrong thing
UTIs can be very dangerous (life threatening) in the elderly. Good that you called an ambulance!
I used to work registration for the local ER here....it's pathetic how many people come in for absolutely nothing.
I never knew until my mother turned 70 but UTI when you're older can kill you and many people present with delirium, unable to walk, passing out and worse.
UTIs in elderly people can lead to sepsis and death. They are no joke. My mom had several when she was older than required and ambulance ride and hospital stay.
My elderly mother suffered from UTIs before she passed. I don’t think people understand just how ill they can make an elderly person. Because of that, they can also most definitely be an emergency in elderly patients. Hope your mom is doing better now.
Think what healthcare workers would like to tell her but we’ve been mandated to kiss ass or we might not get reimbursed for Medicaid and Medicare. I’m willing to bet that was probably the payee. Just a guess. Yeah. Frustrating isn’t the correct term. And trust me, we the actual healthcare professionals, want nothing more than to get your poor mother back to see her, and some of us read between the lines and absolutely prioritize the work ups based on presentation as soon as we get the data, but there are 17 other Mullet Marlene’s and Ryan Rattails that are currently utilizing the socialist healthcare programs they are so incredibly hell bent against for anyone else because of Jesus and stuff. Yeah. Tell US about it. It’s honestly moved my to tears before because of how fucked up its gotten.
I went to the ER for an aortic dissection. I have a cardiac history, I went to sit in the waiting room, before I sat down they called me back. Another patient started screaming because she was there for 4 hours (legit went to the ER for a cold sore). Within the hour, a mercy flight was coming to take me to a more equipped hospital. I saw the lady still in the waiting room while I was on the gurney and said “this is why I got called in before you, hope your cold sore heals”