Are the Uninsured Crowding Our EDs?

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One thing that irks the sh&^ out of me is when girls come to the ED for a pregnancy test. Do any of you get that? 20 bucks at Wallgreens can save you a 600.00 ED bill that the hospital will sick collection agencies on you when you don't pay...To find out if you're pregnant... when you HAVEN'T HAD YOUR PERIOD IN 3 MONTHS. I've seen a number of these. Is this a local phenom or do any of you see the same thing.

We always joke that our census would decrease if we had a vending maching with Percocet, pregnancy tests, and work notes.
 
We always joke that our census would decrease if we had a vending maching with Percocet, pregnancy tests, and work notes.

I dunno Will...with everyone high and with an abundance of free time on their hands you couldn't keep the pregnancy tests stocked fast enough. I'll never forget when I was a third year medical student on my Ob/Gyn rotation and a teenage girl just gave birth..the guy in the room aka the baby daddy, leaned over and whispered "can we get one of those DNA tests?" 🙄
 
Recently a nursing home patient was brought in my ambulance for difficulty breathing. Once the sputum-clog was suctioned out of her trach she was fine. 🙄 The NH refused to take her back because they didn't have enough staff. 😕
I can always tell when the nursing home sends a patient DNR (Do Not Return). If they have staff to take them back they come with "G-tube fell out" or "needs new foley." If they are short staff they add "and chest pain" onto the end.
 
Have you ever gotten the report from the paramedics before arriving that says "coming from nursing home, shocked 3 times with no result" then see the patient and they forgot/didn't have time to tell you they did get a heart beat and the patient was from a group home (much younger than expected)?

How's that for a long, run-on sentence!
 
I can always tell when the nursing home sends a patient DNR (Do Not Return). If they have staff to take them back they come with "G-tube fell out" or "needs new foley." If they are short staff they add "and chest pain" onto the end.
Emphasis mine. The day I send a patient anywhere to have someone else insert a foley is the day my license needs to disintegrate. Gah.

I handle admission, and I despise reconciling meds on patients from a group home. Obviously the patient doesn't know his/her own meds that's why they live in assisted living. The facility, of course, never sends along a med list, background, anything. So I call them and speak with someone who usually introduces herself as a "nurse" but is really an aide of some sort 🙂mad🙂 and getting an accurate medlist is like pulling teeth. They don't know how to pronounce anything and YES I need to know the dose.
 
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