Bad service in the ER?

traumawolfe posts a list of Rules of the ER in

customers_suck. Complaints start at the first comment, where it is pointed out that s/he ripped off the list from another site. People also point out, at various points and in various ways, that some of the demands/complaints are irrational. Many personal anecdotes are invoked on both sides and I learn more about hemorrhoids than I wanted to.

Others defend the OP and there is discussion of exactly how bitchy a patient is allowed to be.

Eventually, the OP deletes her journal, but the post remains.

stella4809 makes an off-topic post over here and people complain there as well.

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	dechant 2007-02-18 10:38 pm UTC (link)
	I reserve the right to bitch about the service if I CAN'T go home. See also "why I will never ever speak of my suicidal impulses again". Why, no, I don't appreciate being hauled in as if my very life depends on me being supervised and then... being left to rot. For six hours. In which I could have easily done myself some serious harm using the equipment in the room. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	seiberwing 2007-02-18 10:45 pm UTC (link)
	Now I feel bad. I once spent a hospital wait pondering the various ways I could kill someone with what was on hand. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

dechant
2007-02-18 10:50 pm UTC (link)

If I hadn't been on the verge of panic for, oh, the whole time, that might've gone through my head as well. As it was, I didn't get the anti-panic drugs until ten minutes prior to discharge -- the ones that I've been taking for nearly four years, which the police and the EMTs wrote down.

The kicker is that I developed some kind of skin thing pretty much right after I left, and it still hasn't gone away completely.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	seiberwing 2007-02-18 10:53 pm UTC (link)
	On the flip side of that, my mum got annoyed that I only put my pain level at two (I'd caught my finger in the hinge of a door and I could just barely see glimpses of my fingerbone). She said we'd have to wait longer. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dechant 2007-02-18 10:58 pm UTC (link)
	Which is probably why ER docs and nurses have got so cynical, unfortunately -- people who've learnt how to manipulate the system really do make it difficult for people who won't. huge sigh (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	seiberwing 2007-02-18 11:01 pm UTC (link)
	That's exactly it, yes. (Reply to this)(Parent)

annaham
2007-02-18 11:03 pm UTC (link)

I've done that too! It was during a severe anaphylactic reaction (lots of swelling of the face and throat, hives, general unpleasantness) when I was in Washington state for the summer--my mom drove me to the nearest hospital (which happened to be Catholic). The nurse at the front desk had no idea what to do (ie: "Iv've never seen this before!" Me: *wheeze* "I CAN'T BREATHE!"), and then she made me sit in a wheelchair for ten minutes while she took a phone call.

It was then that I noticed the huge plaster Jesus statue in the corner, and thought, "If I had enough oxygen to get it through my brain to go over there, lift that statue and hurl it across the room at the nurse, I totally would!" I didn't of course, but it would have been awesome.

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