Ok so it's like 10:45pm and I get to go home soon. I get off work at 11:30pm. I am the one with the ambulance pager and I get a page to go receive and ambulance that went straight to a room. They didn't page me for it ahead of time, great. So I get to the room and there's like 3 or 4 paramedics/emts that brought this patient in. This ambulance is a full arrest, which means they have no pulse, they are not breathing, they are trying to revive them. It's my job to get that patient's name so we can get them in the system. Obviously I cannot ask the patient for any information so I go to one of the paramedics and he gives me a sheet with a name and date of birth. The name looks like it's been scribbled on and written over so we try to make it out together and we come up with something. I decide to ask for a social security number because if they patient has been here before then I can probably find them under that because we would have asked the patient for it last time they were here. Do you want to know what this piece of shit said to me? And I QUOTE...
"I'm sorry, I couldn't get any information out of her."
Understandable. The patient is full arrest and not responding, I can live with that response, but then the asshole laughs like he was joking. LIKE HE WAS JOKINGLY SAYING THAT HE COULDN'T GET ANY INFORMATION OUT OF THE PATIENT BECAUSE OF THEIR CONDITION. This paramedic should be fired and, in my opinion does not deserve life if he's going to joke about a patient he brings in who is not going to be living much longer.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Cut me some slack: I'm not a doctor, and I'm not an asshole.
OK, so I work registration in a hospital's Emergency Room and it's my job to get patients registered. I get to ask you for your identification and insurance for billing purposes while you vomit in a bucket, supplied by the hospital of course, at my desk. Or even worse, a loved one is is the back and you really don't care to give me any information at the moment.
Ok so it's been established that you probably hate me, but cut me some slack.
Please don't talk to me like I'm a piece of garbage who only cares about billing you. God damnit, that is not who I am at all. I go out of my way for patients and family members to try and give you as much information about how long of a wait it could be and I always go get your nurse or doctor if you tell me you would like to see them or your condition is becoming worse.
I had a patient start seizing in the middle of my registration when I was in a room with them. Did I sit there and continue to just put your information into my computer? Because we all know that's all I care about. NO! I immediately ran and found the first doctor/nurse I could and brought them in the room. And with that nurse came 3 or 4 other staff that were immediately in the room to help that patient. SO BACK OFF!
Constantly, and I mean constantly, I or one of my coworkers deal with patients or family members who think that we're the ones who decide who goes back next and who does not. They think I am holding them in the waiting room while they vomit or sit there in some kind of pain for hours on end at times. Believe me people, if I was GOD nobody would ever wait a minute beyond the moment they were received and banded to see a doctor. There are just not enough resources at any hospital or on this Earth to have enough doctors on staff at a hospital to have one ready at your convenience the moment you walk in. There is going to be a wait, it is an Emergency Room and there is nothing I or any of my coworkers can do other than to let the nurses be aware of you continuing complaints of your condition. It is up to the triage nurses who goes back and who stays and waits their turn. And believe me I do not agree with them always, but sometimes you've got to suck it up and sit there.
Personally, I feel if anyone comes in by an ambulance, they should immediately be given a room, but it just always isn't the case. Look at it this way. If you break a leg and are brought in by an ambulance, but currently are doped up on whatever goodies the paramedics gave you on your pleasant ambulance ride (note the sarcasm, these can be awful) to the hospital, then you probably will not be seen by a doctor right away. What? I was brought in by an ambulance and everyone doesn't drop everything for me because I am, and always will be, number one? Sorry, doesn't work that way always. There could be many other things happening in the ER that need more immediate care than your broken leg, even if you came via ambulance. I know it's frustrating, I myself even went into an ER by ambulance because of a kidney stone and still waiting 4 hours in the waiting room before being seen, but you have to try and think rationally, which I know is really hard to do when you're in discomfort. It's all I can ask.
So believe me, I am on your side, I know how bad it sucks to be in discomfort, but you've got to give me a break because there is nothing I can do. I have had doctors and nurses look at me like I was nothing when I tell them a patient keeps complaining and I ask them if there's any way they can be moved up to be seen. There's nothing I can do, I do what I can and that's all I can do, so don't think I'm some asshole who just wants your insurance and billing information.
That's all for now.
Ok so it's been established that you probably hate me, but cut me some slack.
Please don't talk to me like I'm a piece of garbage who only cares about billing you. God damnit, that is not who I am at all. I go out of my way for patients and family members to try and give you as much information about how long of a wait it could be and I always go get your nurse or doctor if you tell me you would like to see them or your condition is becoming worse.
I had a patient start seizing in the middle of my registration when I was in a room with them. Did I sit there and continue to just put your information into my computer? Because we all know that's all I care about. NO! I immediately ran and found the first doctor/nurse I could and brought them in the room. And with that nurse came 3 or 4 other staff that were immediately in the room to help that patient. SO BACK OFF!
Constantly, and I mean constantly, I or one of my coworkers deal with patients or family members who think that we're the ones who decide who goes back next and who does not. They think I am holding them in the waiting room while they vomit or sit there in some kind of pain for hours on end at times. Believe me people, if I was GOD nobody would ever wait a minute beyond the moment they were received and banded to see a doctor. There are just not enough resources at any hospital or on this Earth to have enough doctors on staff at a hospital to have one ready at your convenience the moment you walk in. There is going to be a wait, it is an Emergency Room and there is nothing I or any of my coworkers can do other than to let the nurses be aware of you continuing complaints of your condition. It is up to the triage nurses who goes back and who stays and waits their turn. And believe me I do not agree with them always, but sometimes you've got to suck it up and sit there.
Personally, I feel if anyone comes in by an ambulance, they should immediately be given a room, but it just always isn't the case. Look at it this way. If you break a leg and are brought in by an ambulance, but currently are doped up on whatever goodies the paramedics gave you on your pleasant ambulance ride (note the sarcasm, these can be awful) to the hospital, then you probably will not be seen by a doctor right away. What? I was brought in by an ambulance and everyone doesn't drop everything for me because I am, and always will be, number one? Sorry, doesn't work that way always. There could be many other things happening in the ER that need more immediate care than your broken leg, even if you came via ambulance. I know it's frustrating, I myself even went into an ER by ambulance because of a kidney stone and still waiting 4 hours in the waiting room before being seen, but you have to try and think rationally, which I know is really hard to do when you're in discomfort. It's all I can ask.
So believe me, I am on your side, I know how bad it sucks to be in discomfort, but you've got to give me a break because there is nothing I can do. I have had doctors and nurses look at me like I was nothing when I tell them a patient keeps complaining and I ask them if there's any way they can be moved up to be seen. There's nothing I can do, I do what I can and that's all I can do, so don't think I'm some asshole who just wants your insurance and billing information.
That's all for now.
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