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Happenings.
Dueling Banjos
A few nights ago we had 2 different patients arrive for two different reasons, both handcuffed and shackeled on arrival and in the company of police. That's not all that unusual in my neck of the woods but they ended up across the hall from each other in their ER rooms. Both were drunk and both decided that screaming was their preferred mode of communication. That was fun to listen to.
Asshat#1
Young teen girl comes in with her mother with a complaint. Nurse talks to her and takes vital signs. Doctor comes in and says " So tell me about your issue."
Her response "I aint gotta tell you shit."
Ok. Why did you come here again?
She was discharged shortly afterwards, mom didnt say a word.
Asshat#2.
Medication Reconciliation tech (person that makes sure the medication lists are up to date for all patients) comes out and tells me that a patient has been taking multiple pills in his room without letting the staff know. Now, this puts me in an extremely bad mood. I go to the room to talk to him and recheck vital signs. Im sure I was putting off negative vibes but he was very defensive. His response to me questioning "Well, no one has been paying attention to me, so i just thought I should take them." I asked him "What did you think an 11th pill of X medication was going to do if the first 2 or 3 didnt work?" I basically told him that he either stopped taking his meds and let the staff know his needs (Talk to us like an adult) or he could leave. I wasn't playing with him and I wasn't nice about it. Doctor knew what was happening and was fine with my plan. Cant help someone who doesnt want to be helped. He agreed to stop and would stay.
I left and someone else went in and rifled through his clothing (with his permission) and removed other medications from the room. Later, he has a "fall"...probably from the drop in blood pressure from taking so many pills. Guess what. you earned yourself a CT scan and a fucking idiot award. (I know that sounds mean, but he knew what he was doing.)
Asshats #3 & 4
I was out front in Triage and a couple walks in with huge backpacks. It was obvious that they were homeless. We let anyone come in and use the bathrooms, vending machines and warm up for a short time if you're not a patient or visitor. The man walks up and says they have been walking to work and they wanted to use the bathroom. etc. Basically, explaining their presence in the ER. I was about to tell them they were welcome to hang out for a bit (It was FREEZING OUT) when the girl cuts in with their attitude "You don't got to tell them nothing" and walks into the bathroom.
ok, Whatevs. They both use the bathroom and disappear in the direction of the vending machines that are just outside the ER waiting room. About 20 minutes go by, Security goes on their rounds and find them sleeping underneath an escalator that goes down the side of the ER (Still inside the building). They get woken up and told to move it. Girl tells them she has an appointment this AM with the clinic (Its about 430 am, clinic doesnt open until 0830).
They come back into the waiting room and start using the courtesy phone to try and make an appointment...Uh, its 430, no one is making an appointment right now. Then the girl comes up to me and asks if shes allowed to sit in the waiting room until the clnic opens. I wanted to say "Oh, you want to talk to me now huh?" Instead I referred her to security b/c that's not my call. They tell her no and she asks about being seen for her issue but wants to know which doctor it is b/c the last one she saw "didn't take me seriously." I tell her the MDs name and it's the same MD she saw last time and wouldn't give her narcotics and so she departs.
If she had been honest in the first place, we would have been much more acommodating.
Asshat #5. I almost got subpoened.
Man comes in after drinking. Poops his pants, tries to throw poop on people (nurses, security guards, doctors) etc. Hes medically stable enough that he can check himself out (he came in on the ambulance) and so he's discharged. But he wont put pants on.
So, picture this. Middle aged gentleman, white tank top and sneakers. Thats it. He wraps a blanket around his waist and basically refuses a quiet exit. He starts screaming, running throwing things on his way out. Makes it to our very full waiting room where he drops his blanket and shows everyone his very unimpressive goods (I guess it was cold?
) Cops show up and he gets arrested. They got the staffs name and bdays for subpoenas but only 2 of the 4 of us had to go to court for his Indecent Exposure case.
Thankfully it was late enough that our Kid population in the waiting room was actually 0. So it was just a group of Senior Citizens that got the show.
This was all over a short time. I have more. Just cant remember them right now.
A few nights ago we had 2 different patients arrive for two different reasons, both handcuffed and shackeled on arrival and in the company of police. That's not all that unusual in my neck of the woods but they ended up across the hall from each other in their ER rooms. Both were drunk and both decided that screaming was their preferred mode of communication. That was fun to listen to.
Asshat#1
Young teen girl comes in with her mother with a complaint. Nurse talks to her and takes vital signs. Doctor comes in and says " So tell me about your issue."
Her response "I aint gotta tell you shit."
Ok. Why did you come here again?
She was discharged shortly afterwards, mom didnt say a word. Asshat#2.
Medication Reconciliation tech (person that makes sure the medication lists are up to date for all patients) comes out and tells me that a patient has been taking multiple pills in his room without letting the staff know. Now, this puts me in an extremely bad mood. I go to the room to talk to him and recheck vital signs. Im sure I was putting off negative vibes but he was very defensive. His response to me questioning "Well, no one has been paying attention to me, so i just thought I should take them." I asked him "What did you think an 11th pill of X medication was going to do if the first 2 or 3 didnt work?" I basically told him that he either stopped taking his meds and let the staff know his needs (Talk to us like an adult) or he could leave. I wasn't playing with him and I wasn't nice about it. Doctor knew what was happening and was fine with my plan. Cant help someone who doesnt want to be helped. He agreed to stop and would stay.
I left and someone else went in and rifled through his clothing (with his permission) and removed other medications from the room. Later, he has a "fall"...probably from the drop in blood pressure from taking so many pills. Guess what. you earned yourself a CT scan and a fucking idiot award. (I know that sounds mean, but he knew what he was doing.)
Asshats #3 & 4
I was out front in Triage and a couple walks in with huge backpacks. It was obvious that they were homeless. We let anyone come in and use the bathrooms, vending machines and warm up for a short time if you're not a patient or visitor. The man walks up and says they have been walking to work and they wanted to use the bathroom. etc. Basically, explaining their presence in the ER. I was about to tell them they were welcome to hang out for a bit (It was FREEZING OUT) when the girl cuts in with their attitude "You don't got to tell them nothing" and walks into the bathroom.
ok, Whatevs. They both use the bathroom and disappear in the direction of the vending machines that are just outside the ER waiting room. About 20 minutes go by, Security goes on their rounds and find them sleeping underneath an escalator that goes down the side of the ER (Still inside the building). They get woken up and told to move it. Girl tells them she has an appointment this AM with the clinic (Its about 430 am, clinic doesnt open until 0830).
They come back into the waiting room and start using the courtesy phone to try and make an appointment...Uh, its 430, no one is making an appointment right now. Then the girl comes up to me and asks if shes allowed to sit in the waiting room until the clnic opens. I wanted to say "Oh, you want to talk to me now huh?" Instead I referred her to security b/c that's not my call. They tell her no and she asks about being seen for her issue but wants to know which doctor it is b/c the last one she saw "didn't take me seriously." I tell her the MDs name and it's the same MD she saw last time and wouldn't give her narcotics and so she departs.
If she had been honest in the first place, we would have been much more acommodating.
Asshat #5. I almost got subpoened.
Man comes in after drinking. Poops his pants, tries to throw poop on people (nurses, security guards, doctors) etc. Hes medically stable enough that he can check himself out (he came in on the ambulance) and so he's discharged. But he wont put pants on.
So, picture this. Middle aged gentleman, white tank top and sneakers. Thats it. He wraps a blanket around his waist and basically refuses a quiet exit. He starts screaming, running throwing things on his way out. Makes it to our very full waiting room where he drops his blanket and shows everyone his very unimpressive goods (I guess it was cold?
) Cops show up and he gets arrested. They got the staffs name and bdays for subpoenas but only 2 of the 4 of us had to go to court for his Indecent Exposure case. Thankfully it was late enough that our Kid population in the waiting room was actually 0. So it was just a group of Senior Citizens that got the show.
This was all over a short time. I have more. Just cant remember them right now.
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