You WILL comply . . . .

[Sapphire Silk]

I'm down here at the beach for a nursing conference. Last night, I went for a walk on the beach, and sprained my ankle really badly. In spite of icing it, taking an NSAID, and elevating it, it was so painful this morning that I asked my friend KW to take me to the local emergency room. I was really fearful I'd broken it (which would be a total disaster to my weight loss program).

When I get there, I'm asked to fill out a registration slip It includes requests for odd information, including my place of birth and my maiden name/ married name. I had already circled the "D" for divorced on marital status, but being asked for the other two bits of information raised an eyebrow and I didn't want to answer the questions, so I left them blank. It is really none of their business and has nothing to do with treating my medical problem.

Three different clerks tried to insist on getting this information from me. I got really annoyed. I finally told them, "it's none of your business. It has nothing to do with treating my ankle." They wouldn't stop pushing, kept up with a line of "we need it to check medical records in case you've ever been here before."

Me: I've never been here before
Clerk: Well, if you were unconscious, we'd need to know if you'd been here before.
Me: I am conscious, alert, and oriented, and I'm telling you I've never been here before.

So she leaves, and comes back with a cop! I got really pissed: she was clearly using law enforcement to try to bully me into going along with her paperwork demands for information I'm not obligated to share with her. Once she did that, I was determined not to give in. I dug in my heels even more.

Me: Now I'm getting angry. I'm offended by this. You have no cause to bring security into this.
Cop: Now I'm offended.
Me: Why are you offended?
Cop: Because I'm a police officer, not a security guard.

That's when I notice his sidearm.
Me: I didn't see your weapon. You are indeed a police officer. I apologize . . . but that still has nothing to do with anything.

Clerk: Well, we don't know who you are because you won't answer our questions.
Me: I've told you who I am. The information you want you are not legally entitled to (yes I put it like that). EMTALA says you have to give me a medical screening exam. I don't have to answer these questions to get one.
Clerk: We'll treat you, but we need to know who you are. Do you have identification? (note: this is a major EMTALA no no. They can't insist on completing registration before seeing a patient).
Me: I have identification . . . but I will not show it to you I will show it to him (the cop) if he asks.
Cop: yes, please.

So I give him my driver's license. he takes it out of the room, and probably photocopied it for the hospital, then gave it back to me. They let the matter drop.

I'm not letting it drop. I'm drafting a letter to their CEO, and considering whether or not to file a complaint with JCAHO for an EMTALA violation. They delayed caring for my medical emergency because I wouldn't give them information they have no right to.

If I do file an EMTALA complaint, and it is upheld, then it is a $50,000 fine.

The doc and the nurses were great, however. I did get good care . . . once I finally got it.

[surreal20]

Meep. Not cool.

My mom who is a nurse has said "nurses are some of the worst patients." Now please don't get me wrong, i do not mean that you are a bad patient by ANY means. I am just implying that when she says this, she means that nurses known so much about what's going on, that they tend to forget that they are the patient and not the nurse.

Beside from that, that's ridiculous for them to go against this kind of thing. As you have stated before, it is of no consequence who you were before this moment in time as to what care you need right away.

I do hope you follow through with the EMTALA complaint. The only way someone would know its wrong is if someone as educated as you were to come across it. And you have.

As a patient advicate/nurse, i feel that it is possibly you duty to enform them of this infraction. Who knows what kind of crap they could be pulling with this type of information. I am hopeful that they really aren't using if for illlegal things, and that they honestly are just using it for cross reference of medical files...but still...

[Aethian]

Make the complaint, those two questions have no place on a admission slip. At least I don't think they do.

[Mishi]

What is the point of those questions anyway? The rest of the information should be more than enough for I.D purposes. I hope you make the complaint, making someone wait for medical treatment over something so insignificant should not be allowed.

I hope your ankle heals up quickly! I don't know if it will interact with anything you're taking, but I've found that comfrey cream makes a huge difference to how quickly I heal and for some reason it also helps with the pain. (In theory it shouldn't but I'll take a positive placebo effect over extra painkillers anyday.)

[terakhan]

Personally, I'd be writing to that police department too. I was law enforcement in the military, and if I got called to the base hospital because someone didn't want to give their maiden name, I would have turn around and walked right back out. Law enforcement has more important things to do than to bully patients in a hospital about not filling out forms 'correctly'.

[Spork4pedro]

I'm not in the medical field at all so forgive my ignorance...but how would the staff find out that info if you had been unconscious/unable to answer?

[Sapphire Silk]

Meep. Not cool.

My mom who is a nurse has said "nurses are some of the worst patients." Now please don't get me wrong, i do not mean that you are a bad patient by ANY means. I am just implying that when she says this, she means that nurses known so much about what's going on, that they tend to forget that they are the patient and not the nurse.

<snip>

As a patient advicate/nurse, i feel that it is possibly you duty to enform them of this infraction. Who knows what kind of crap they could be pulling with this type of information. I am hopeful that they really aren't using if for illlegal things, and that they honestly are just using it for cross reference of medical files...but still...

Oh, I agree. Nurses make eve worse patients than doctors because we know how the floor is supposed to be run

I had no problem with legitimate questions. I said "yes, sir" and "no, ma'am". I was respectful and polite in every way, and thanked people for what they did for me. I do understand how hard patients can be on staff . . . I strive not to be a sucky patient.

But when a staff member is sucky . . . then it's game on!

What is the point of those questions anyway? The rest of the information should be more than enough for I.D purposes. I hope you make the complaint, making someone wait for medical treatment over something so insignificant should not be allowed.

I hope your ankle heals up quickly! I don't know if it will interact with anything you're taking, but I've found that comfrey cream makes a huge difference to how quickly I heal and for some reason it also helps with the pain. (In theory it shouldn't but I'll take a positive placebo effect over extra painkillers anyday.)

Thanks. It feels a lot better today than yesterday. However, last time I had this bad a sprain, I was on crutches for a month. We'll see how it goes over the next week or so.

There was no point to the question about my place of birth. It has absolutely no medical relevance whatsoever. The one about my maiden/married name is a law enforcement question, for determining aliases. That's useful if they want to screen for drug seekers . . . but they're still required to treat drug seekers. Whether or not to give narcs to a drug seeker is the physician's problem, not registration's. Even though drug seeking is a problem, and use of aliases complicates it, it was still not a legitimate question to ask . . . and forcing the issue was not appropriate.

Personally, I'd be writing to that police department too. I was law enforcement in the military, and if I got called to the base hospital because someone didn't want to give their maiden name, I would have turn around and walked right back out. Law enforcement has more important things to do than to bully patients in a hospital about not filling out forms 'correctly'.

I think the cop was employed by the hospital. Some hospitals have their own certified law enforcement. I plan to find out, though.

I'm not in the medical field at all so forgive my ignorance...but how would the staff find out that info if you had been unconscious/unable to answer?

They wouldn't. It was a ridiculous statement for them to make. If a patient is unconscious and has ID, great. If not, oh well. You treat them as a John Doe until they wake up or are otherwise identified. And people die as John Does and are never identified every year.

I'm thinking I will file the EMTALA complaint. I'm also going to write a letter to the editor of the Journal of Emergency Nursing and prompt nurses to have their facilities review their registration policies for this kind of nonsense.

[Mishi]

They wouldn't. It was a ridiculous statement for them to make.

I have a ridiculous answer for that!

You see, if you're unconcious, they send you to the MRI machine. 'Cuz yanno, it's not actually a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine... its really a Mind Reading Instrument and 'They' tack on the word machine to confuse you. (I didn't make this answer up, sad hey?)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm not in the medical field at all so forgive my ignorance...but how would the staff find out that info if you had been unconscious/unable to answer?

I was gonna ask this very thing.

And was a cop doing in there bothering you? None of that was his business and had nothing to do with anything. That doesn't even make any sense.

[NateTheChops]

I was gonna ask this very thing.
And was a cop doing in there bothering you? None of that was his business and had nothing to do with anything. That doesn't even make any sense.

The cop might have been there for something entirely unrelated. Heck, he was probably just in there having lunch (some of the police officers in my hometown will stop by the hospital cafeteria on their rounds) and the clerk, not used to having people being statistically smarter than they are, decided to press gang him into muscle service.

I'd love to be the fly on the wall if they had ever pulled that with my own mother. (Who is also a nurse)

[Sparky]

Let us know what happens!

[Sapphire Silk]

Let us know what happens!

I will. I had to leave a message for the EMTALA people; if I don't hear back by Monday afternoon, I'll call again. I'm also going to get my nastygram to the hospital CEO in the mail tomorrow.

[Mytical]

I will. I had to leave a message for the EMTALA people; if I don't hear back by Monday afternoon, I'll call again. I'm also going to get my nastygram to the hospital CEO in the mail tomorrow.

Good for you. Now just hope that this will set things straight. That Cop was also in the wrong. You don't use a position of authority to bully people.

[Seshat]

I hope your ankle heals up quickly! I don't know if it will interact with anything you're taking, but I've found that comfrey cream makes a huge difference to how quickly I heal and for some reason it also helps with the pain. (In theory it shouldn't but I'll take a positive placebo effect over extra painkillers anyday.)

Off topic, but me too!

It's not absolute pain that's the problem - it's suffering. And a placebo effect counters suffering extremely well and with zero side effects.

[Sapphire Silk]

Off topic, but me too!

It's not absolute pain that's the problem - it's suffering. And a placebo effect counters suffering extremely well and with zero side effects.

Re comfrey cream: I've been told that, though I haven't tried it. Right now I'm using an anti inflammatory cream my doctor gave me for my knees that seems to be working