Doctors Share Things You Should Never Do in the ER

Here’s a fundamental truth about human life: No one plans to go to the emergency room, and no one really wants to be there. The unexpected, oh shit-now I’m in trouble nature of this place meant that everyone who came there to be seen probably had a very different plan for the rest of their day.

But just because you’re sick and scared doesn’t mean you really need to take out your frustrations on the people around you, especially the people who are there to help you get better.

“Patients and their families come to the emergency department on their worst and most stressful days, and we are here to support them,” said Dr. J. David Gatzassociate medical director of the adult emergency department at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “We are extremely understanding overall, but we are often faced with many cases at the same time, and it is essential that one person’s behavior does not have a negative impact on another. »

What often happens in emergency rooms these days? East an emergency, and not just because of the sick waiting there to be treated. Patients and visitors are behaving in increasingly troublesome ways, many staff members say.

HuffPost spoke with some medical professionals who offered some very simple suggestions to make their lives — and yours, potentially — a little easier in the emergency room.

And if you’re thinking, “Why do we even need to remind people of this?” we agree with you and we hope this article helps you. Here’s what to do – and what not to do.

If you’ve had to go to the emergency room recently, you may have noticed a big sign at check-in declaring the place a “healing environment” and letting you know that the staff would super-duper appreciate it if you could see fit to avoid physically or verbally assaulting them, thanks a million (or something).

Why would someone hit someone who is there to help them get better? This is also what doctors and nurses would like to know, as many of them increasingly encounter frightening and dangerous behavior from their patients.

An alarming 66% of emergency room doctors reported being assaulted in the past year, study finds, including more than one‑a third said he had been attacked several times. In another study, 71% of doctors have witnessed an assault at work; 97% say the attackers were patients.

If this seems unbelievable, it’s important to note that every medical professional interviewed for this story cited physical and verbal abuse as a major concern. To drive the point home, here are some recent incidents Gatz has seen in his emergency room:

• Breaking hardware and computers

• Break the windows

• Throwing away and spreading bodily waste on surfaces and walls

• Throw away food

• Self-removing IVs, then pulled out leaving blood on the floor

• Calling 911 from the emergency room to complain that they haven’t been seen (this one wins the “most meta” award)

Let’s say you just stubbed your toe and decide to go to the emergency room. While you’re there, a massive road accident has flooded local healthcare facilities and everyone on staff is scrambling to save lives. You may have been waiting a very long time, but can you understand how your owie, although painful, may not be the top priority right now?

Apparently, many people don’t do it understand this, which leads to ugly scenes between angry patients and beleaguered staff.

“We prioritize based on acuity,” says Dr. Jared L. Rossa board-certified emergency medicine physician who was an EMT, EMT, and firefighter before becoming a doctor. His argument is that unless you have access to the “chart” of all incoming patients, you have no idea how serious your problem really is compared to others. Ross acknowledges this is a hard truth: “I know wait times can be excruciating in busy emergency rooms,” he said.

Sometimes, however, wait times are exacerbated by patients forcing things to take much longer than necessary. Emma W., a second-year emergency medicine resident who asked that her full name not be used, recently entered a treatment room in which the patient waved her finger “not now” because they were on the phone with a friend and did not want to be “interrupted.”

“This patient then complained about how long it was taking him to be seen, insisting that we needed to ‘speed up’ because he had a concert that evening that he couldn’t miss,” she said.

“I’ve also had patients tell me they would only see a male doctor (I’m a woman), but when no male doctor was on call, the patient was furious because they had to wait for a man to clock in for the next shift or ‘give in’ and see a female doctor,” she added.

Although Ross encourages patients and their family members to be good health care advocates, there are effective ways to do this. If something changes in the patient’s condition and, for example, mild chest pain worsens, inform the healthcare team. But reminding everyone how long you’ve been waiting and repeatedly asking when you’ll be seen isn’t the best tactic.

“Demanding to be seen ‘right away’ will disrupt staff concentration, frighten other patients and create unnecessary tension in an already very stressful environment,” said Kisha Pickford, an acute care nurse practitioner with over two decades of clinical experience in emergency rooms. “People forget that emergency crews have to juggle trauma, sepsis, strokes and COVID, not just mild fevers or crushed toes. Courtesy and patience go a long way.”

“I have seen first-hand how patient and family behavior in the emergency room can either support or seriously disrupt the care process,” Pickford said. “The emergency room is not the place to yell, answer phone calls on speakerphone, or bring five people into the room to ‘check on mom.’ »

“Who you bring with you to the emergency room is important,” said one registered nurse. Karen Selby. “A calm, supportive companion can make the experience smoother. But bringing large groups together in a small treatment space creates noise and chaos, making it harder for staff to work quickly and safely.

“Unfortunately, family members and visitors sometimes display verbally or physically aggressive behaviors, such as yelling about wait times, insisting on immediate attention or even threatening staff,” Selby said. “This distracts from critically ill patients and can delay care if security needs to intervene.” »

If emergency rooms seem more crowded than ever, there are several reasons for this. One, emergency room staff say, is that while urgent care and clinic visits may be the appropriate treatment in many situations, many people rush to the emergency room. Then they wait a long time in a crowded waiting room because non-urgent cases are not handled as quickly as medical emergencies.

“Emergency rooms are designed to prioritize life-threatening conditions, such as heart attacks, strokes and trauma,” Selby said. “If you come in with a minor problem, you may wait hours while more critical patients are treated.”

There’s another reason to reconsider an emergency room visit if your condition isn’t really an emergency, she added: “Emergency room visits are among the most expensive care options. Even with insurance, co-pays and deductibles are typically much higher than urgent care or primary care visits.”

Ross said, “Many patients come to the emergency room and don’t need to be seen there, and don’t want to understand that they can’t be the top priority at all times. Of course, you should never hesitate to seek care, and we are very much here to help you in an emergency, but it might be a good idea to do some ‘self-triage’ and ask yourself if what you are experiencing could be seen more quickly at another medical facility. It is not always necessary whether it’s emergencies.”

The original version of this story was published on HuffPost earlier.