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Dang, lots of harsh comments. I don't think it's our place to judge. Just assume the man had to go. Calling someone an idiot is a gross disrespect of common courtesy. You're right folks, it's silly to go for a toothache, headache, or whatever ailments that aren't considered emergencies but you don't know the dude's situation. Headaches could be a sign of something worse, like a tumor growing in your brain and you may need immediate care for whatever reason; a toothache could possible mean an infection that has spread to other parts of your body, like your heart, which is known to happen. Give the guy a breek, eesh.
Sure actually if you kick the wall and hurt your foot... everyone should just go into the ER just because it "may" be something more serious however unlikely it is... If you farted and it hurt, you may have cancer so go to the ER... choosing that as a response is also short of unbelievable.. there are people out there waiting in the ER who have REAL emergencies and you are delaying their treatment for a toothache or a cold or maybe you have the hiccups, it could be brain cancer you know.. that IS irresponsible...
You are more than entitled to your opinion. As an individual who has known a couple of people die, or nearly die, from seemingly "normal" ailments, I still respectfully disagree. You are more than welcome to continue with your smart alec rants. It's pretty amusing how instead of developing a well thought out argument (which by the way I don't disagree with you), you have to resort to caustic remarks. As far as I'm concerned, you've made your point and I've made mine and we're completely off-topic and not contributing to the conversation but rather hindering it.
Sure actually if you kick the wall and hurt your foot... everyone should just go into the ER just because it "may" be something more serious however unlikely it is... If you farted and it hurt, you may have cancer so go to the ER... choosing that as a response is also short of unbelievable.. there are people out there waiting in the ER who have REAL emergencies and you are delaying their treatment for a toothache or a cold or maybe you have the hiccups, it could be brain cancer you know.. that IS irresponsible...
BELIEVE it or not, and like it or not, hospital ER's staff with the anticipation of non life threatening health care issues. Not every emergency room visit is a scene from NBC's ER with gun shots, hostages, bombs, etc. If Lion needed care, he needed care, regardless how you feel about it.
Also, there is a triage nurse in the ER for a reason...to assess and filter. They send the most critical patients back first and the less pressing issues wait, so there are rarely delays in critical patients.
I wouldn't trust a triage nurse to be able to tell you who or who isn't in real life-threatening emergencies... once the amount of people with "colds" and "headaches" come into the ER, you get desensitize to people's ailments... I don't blame the triage nurse, its just what happens when too many people show up for colds and headaches... here goes another lumbar puncture..
You are more than entitled to your opinion. As an individual who has known a couple of people die, or nearly die, from seemingly "normal" ailments, I still respectfully disagree. You are more than welcome to continue with your smart alec rants. It's pretty amusing how instead of developing a well thought out argument (which by the way I don't disagree with you), you have to resort to caustic remarks. As far as I'm concerned, you've made your point and I've made mine and we're completely off-topic and not contributing to the conversation but rather hindering it.
Caustic? Have you worked in an ER... cause I have... I present to you facts about what I usually see in a day-to-day schedule... People then complain about huge health care costs, without realizing that a lot of the problems is because of their "behavior" such as Lion... toothaches are NOT medical emergencies and in almost every single case never warranted an ER workup... What did he think was going to happen other than given pain meds? There are plenty of OTC drugs and clinics and even dental offices available... He/she is complaining about wasting ER time and getting a large bill, hopefully the bill is big enough that next time he learns that visiting an ER for a toothache is NOT a good idea.. some ERs even have copays now because people come in a problem that can be taken care of at PCP office.. the copay isn't to limit patients, its so that when it comes to their money, they make a "smarter" decision...
Caustic? Have you worked in an ER... cause I have... I present to you facts about what I usually see in a day-to-day schedule... People then complain about huge health care costs, without realizing that a lot of the problems is because of their "behavior" such as Lion... toothaches are NOT medical emergencies and in almost every single case never warranted an ER workup... What did he think was going to happen other than given pain meds? There are plenty of OTC drugs and clinics and even dental offices available... He/she is complaining about wasting ER time and getting a large bill, hopefully the bill is big enough that next time he learns that visiting an ER for a toothache is NOT a good idea.. some ERs even have copays now because people come in a problem that can be taken care of at PCP office.. the copay isn't to limit patients, its so that when it comes to their money, they make a "smarter" decision...
What is your profession in an ER because you surely do not seem very well versed in the medical field.
BTW, ER copays are not new! They have been required by most HMO's and PPO's for decades.
My husband and I are in the medical field and I find it quite hard to believe that you are so bitter about less than life threatening ailments coming into the ER and that you had no apparent knowledge of priorities in the ER. Just find it interesting.
Bitter? I am not bitter, I am pointing out the problems in the ER... and if you knew that the ER rooms go at the rate of thousands of dollars an hour, then you know you should not be coming into an ER for minor ailments. Public perception is that just go to ER for a splinter.. and yes, I have had people come into the ER because they have splinter in their finger... That takes up the physicians time so much that they are now staffing ERs with less than competent PAs... I never said that there were no priorities in the ER, my suggestion has been that minor ailments should never come to the ER in the first place... that's what clinics and PCP offices are for, not ERs... and toothaches are not ER issues..
Dude, sounds like you need to get into another line of work, or at least out of the ER. You are extremely hostile and need to chill out. I don't doubt for a second you've probably seen things that none of us dare to even imagine but this original poster obviously posted this because he was upset. Who the heck are you to admonish him? Just because you can't take it out on your patients and yell at them for coming to the ER for non-emergency reasons it doesn't give you the right to do it on here to some innocent person who you know nothing about. Stop talking down to people like they don't know anything. Just because we're not doctors, it doesn't mean we're not qualified to give our 2 cents and just because you are a doctor, doesn't mean that your advice is better than ours. JesusFreakin'Christ.
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