Video of urgent care doctor yelling at patient

[BJJVP]

Although I am sure it doesn't tell the whole story, the video makes it hard to sympathize with the doctor.

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[SalemK]

It does not tell the whole story. I honestly thought our friend ZDogg did a pretty great job explaining the whole incident, and after watching this, I agree with him. Why We Should All Support Dr. Peter Gallogly

 

[BoardingDoc]

It does not tell the whole story. I honestly thought our friend ZDogg did a pretty great job explaining the whole incident, and after watching this, I agree with him. Why We Should All Support Dr. Peter Gallogly

37 minutes long? TL;DW?

 

[filhodeinferno]

Although I am sure it doesn't tell the whole story, the video makes it hard to sympathize with the doctor.

Yeah, because I'm sure he just yelled at her like that for no reason. Makes me wonder what the woman was doing prior to that video being filmed to get such a rise out of a doctor at his workplace.

 

[Vandalia]

Tangent to the thread, but I absolutely hate videos when people want to express a thought. I can read/skim far faster than someone can speak.

 

[BAM!]

Florida is a "two-party consent" state for recording conversations. The daughter committed a felony by illegally recording his conversation with the mother. The doc was heroic in trying to stop a criminal from breaking the law when he snatched her phone. If anything, he should be applauded!

 

[Dylanation]

37 minutes long? TL;DW?

TL;DW

Patients acted all cute and innocent on camera but prior to the doctor coming out, the mother and daughter were threatening the staff and acting belligerent even after receiving a refund and being asked to leave. The events leading up to the video were reported by multiple witness accounts.

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[deleted820760]

Dealing with the public can be so difficult sometimes. I don’t think that doctor should have behaved that way, but he’s only human. These people push people over the edge. No one should have to deal with threats and other unacceptable behavior at work, but it has become all too common in the healthcare field.

 

[Psai]

TL;DW

Patients acted all cute and innocent on camera but prior to the doctor coming out, the mother and daughter were threatening the staff and acting belligerent even after receiving a refund and being asked to leave. The events leading up to the video were reported by multiple witness accounts.

Sent from my LGUS997 using SDN mobile

God people are ****ty

 

[Status Sciaticus]

probably looking for a handout in this lawsuit prone state/physician unfriendly state. Anything to make a quick buck...
What gets me is that she waited for 1.5 hours and is throwing a fit, but is immediately ready to go to bed and see a different doctor the next day (atleast another 12-15 hours)... so you are so sick that you cant wait 1.5 hours, but are not sick enough to wait 15 hours?

 

[e30ftw]

Makes me thankful for our guys with the badge and gun.

 

[SalemK]

Actually, I agree 100% about videos being annoying and I wouldn't normally have watched this either, I just ended up forwarding to the relevant parts starting at around 7:45. (Forgive me, I'm working overnights in the ICU and my reality is tenuous.) Apparently she had been swearing, physically threatening the staff, and still wouldn't leave after having been given her money back. The front desk had already called the police. Seems he's a well-known local doc with tons of positive ratings across various social media and he has apologized, saying he regrets his actions, but that he lost his temper because he did not tolerate his staff being threatened with violence.

 

[Tenk]

This is why when I get patients who have pissed me off this much I go super ultra nice mode on them.

I'm soooooooooooo sorry you have chronic pain and you're allergic to everything but dilaudid, that's soooooooooooooo terrible! There's just nothing I can do about that sorrrrrrryyy !!!

This usually causes them to totally lose their **** and in addition you aren't saying anything offensive. You just smile and say bye Felicia.

 

[Angry Birds]

This is why when I get patients who have pissed me off this much I go super ultra nice mode on them.

I'm soooooooooooo sorry you have chronic pain and you're allergic to everything but dilaudid, that's soooooooooooooo terrible! There's just nothing I can do about that sorrrrrrryyy !!!

This usually causes them to totally lose their **** and in addition you aren't saying anything offensive. You just smile and say bye Felicia.

Yes, I highly recommend this sort of customer service approach for the drug-seeking or difficult patient.

In any case, I'm sorry to say, but I can't stick with the company line. That urgent care doctor was in the wrong. There is no excuse for cussing at a patient or yelling in this way. Furthermore, it is technically assault to grab the phone in that way.

I keep my cool no matter what. I've had patients cuss me out, give me middle fingers, spit at me, swing at me, and tell me to "go back to your country!" I don't take it personally and just keep doing my job.

He shouldn't be fired, but he should be reprimanded.

I only listened to a little bit of Z Dogg, but he actually makes an accurate comparison to police videos. Other police officers will always side with their colleagues, and I think a similar dynamic is emerging here. But, no matter which way you slice it, it's never OK to cuss a patient out or grab their phone, etc.

 

[Jabbed]

I only listened to a little bit of Z Dogg, but he actually makes an accurate comparison to police videos. Other police officers will always side with their colleagues, and I think a similar dynamic is emerging here. But, no matter which way you slice it, it's never OK to cuss a patient out or grab their phone, etc.

I clicked through a few articles that covered this. They all led with the same clickbait title like "Urgent care doctor yells at sick patient", but each one of them also mentioned how she was reportedly belligerent and even contained excerpts from the police reports as well as full witness statements.

I agree that it was incredibly unprofessional, but I think that the mainstream view is that he still had the high ground.

Agree with the thought that he should be reprimanded but not fired.

 

[engineeredout]

 

[Old_Mil]

My personal recommendation to all ED/UC managers out there would be to have patients check their cell phones in at triage. There are phones in the rooms if they need to speak to family. They can be returned to them at discharge.

The risk of a serious HIPPA violation with patients running around in hospitals with video cameras is far too high.

 

[Vandalia]

The risk of a serious HIPPA violation with patients running around in hospitals with video cameras is far too high.

You understand the game, my friend. Were you a nurse before you became a physician?

Right when Obamacare came out, one of the local unaffiliated primary care physicians put up a sign in his office saying, "Obamacare requires that all estimated charges be paid in full before the patient can be seen." Even though he was unaffiliated, he certainly had a talent for institutional medicine. The key is to use a well known law and interpret it to mean that you can (or can't) do whatever you want (or don't want) to do. Some of the things I heard over the decades, "Because of HIPPA nurses can't bring patients back to the ED rooms, physicians have to do that." "I would love to see that uninsured, too rich for Medicaid horrible-rash patient in my office tomorrow, ... but Obamacare says I can't accept referrals from the ED." "Infection control here. 2 employees (out of 500+) have called in saying they have diarrhea! We have an epidemic on our hands! The ACA says we have to close the entire hospital NOW!"

Although your idea of course might be for good and actually have some slight connection to the law and reality.

 

[jw3600]

Yes, I highly recommend this sort of customer service approach for the drug-seeking or difficult patient.

In any case, I'm sorry to say, but I can't stick with the company line. That urgent care doctor was in the wrong. There is no excuse for cussing at a patient or yelling in this way. Furthermore, it is technically assault to grab the phone in that way.

I keep my cool no matter what. I've had patients cuss me out, give me middle fingers, spit at me, swing at me, and tell me to "go back to your country!" I don't take it personally and just keep doing my job.

He shouldn't be fired, but he should be reprimanded.

I only listened to a little bit of Z Dogg, but he actually makes an accurate comparison to police videos. Other police officers will always side with their colleagues, and I think a similar dynamic is emerging here. But, no matter which way you slice it, it's never OK to cuss a patient out or grab their phone, etc.

Agree with the phone grab. Disagree on the cussing. Cussing isn't illegal. If a patient is being unbelievably rude and belligerent I'm not gonna think twice about saying something like "get the hell out" or "grab your **** and go, you're discharged." This isn't elementary school.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Agree with the phone grab. Disagree on the cussing. Cussing isn't illegal. If a patient is being unbelievably rude and belligerent I'm not gonna think twice about saying something like "get the hell out" or "grab your **** and go, you're discharged." This isn't elementary school.

Still don't see the need to swear at people. It gains you nothing and provides the impression (rightly or wrongly) that you're losing control of the situation. I deal with all non-redirectably rude/aggressive patients entirely the same way: give them the choice to immediately leave, or have security escort them out.

 

[jw3600]

Still don't see the need to swear at people. It gains you nothing and provides the impression (rightly or wrongly) that you're losing control of the situation. I deal with all non-redirectably rude/aggressive patients entirely the same way: give them the choice to immediately leave, or have security escort them out.

Catharsis.

 

[GeneralVeers]

I never swear at patients. Once I sense the conversation is going nowhere and feel myself getting angry, I walk out of the room. Clearly patients who can stand, argue, and yell like that need to be discharged immediately, +/- security.

 

[KnuxNole]

Yeah, cussing makes it look bad. We aren't 12 year old boys. I understand the frustration, but people who curse up a storm always looks bad to me. Like others said, walk away or kill them with kindness. Let them spew curse words like a freaky immature person and you stand there laughing at how pathetic they are acting!

 

[Birdstrike]

I only watched the 1 minute clip in the OP where the doc blows up, swears at the patient, and kicks her out. I can't watch the entire 37 minute video right now, so I won't comment on this specific incident, patient or this doctor specifically since I haven't watched enough of it or read enough about it to comment on it accurately. Instead I'll make some generalized comments on some of the overriding issues involved.

First of all, in a non-ED setting where EMTALA doesn't apply, the business owner has every right to refuse service to someone for any reason or no reason at all, assuming its not due to illegal discrimination (based on race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, disability, marital status, age, ancestry, veteran status, other protected class). Certainly, if a patient is disruptive, an urgent care or doctor's office can ask a patient to leave. That being said, once you've let a patient (and customer) get under your skin so bad you're blowing up emotionally, cussing and swearing to beat the band, clearly you've lost, and the patient has won. And trust me, I've been there, with my limits being tested, on too many occasions to count. Although I've never worked in an urgent care, per se, I've been under the stress of working in overwhelmed EDs, trauma centers, understaffed rural EDs with little to no subspecialty back up, tired and feeling overwhelmed at 4 in the morning, with belligerent patients testing my limits of patients. And I've also worked in a non-EMTALA outpatient setting where everyone is scheduled and there are no walk-ins (currently, Interventional Pain). But when you let a patient get you to the point of blowing up, and this goes for any business, you haven't won. You've let them take a chunk out of you and let them take away a little bit of your humanity. And I realize that medicine-on-demand does this to you. This is what burnout is all about. Medicine-on-demand is a profoundly unnatural line of work to be in, where an unlimited number of people can make unlimited amounts of demands upon you and your time with no limit upon the nature or severity, with impossible and unrealistic expectations from administrators and patients. And this is why burnout is so prevalent in EM and urgent cares, as much as people going through it prefer to be in denial about it (for reasons of short-term self preservation). You are constantly being subjected to impossible demands upon your time, ability and emotional reserves. It's like very few other job setting in existence. One simply cannot understand the stresses upon you, until you've gone through it, and less than 0.001% of the population ever will.

Another thing to keep in mind, specifically about non-ED settings, such as private doctors' offices, urgent cares included, is that since EMTALA doesn't apply, you don't have to see every patient. Along with that means you also don't have to go out in the waiting room and kick them out. You can stay in back, do your work, and if they're upset about the wait, they can leave. If they're belligerent or disruptive, you as the doc don't have to bounce them out yourself. You can have someone say, "Please leave now or we'll call the police to escort you out." All the while, you're in back, doing your work as fast as you can (but no faster). There's generally no need to go out into a waiting room and angrily confront a patient you've not seen.

That being said, it sucks when you're at a doctor's office, you had an appointment, and you're waiting forever. That is still no excuse to blow up, make a scene, abuse staff and get belligerent. It also sucks mightily, to be working as hard as you can, perhaps past your level of stress tolerance, and have a belligerent patient start screaming and yelling at you, treating you like dirt as if you're just sitting around picking your toe nails, watching Real Housewives of NJ, waiting on your disability check to kick in while washing down a Marlboro Light with Mountain Dew while Barracuda vibes out of the boombox in the break room. That being said, is the best move to storm out in the waiting room with your best Jack Nicholson-in-The-Shining impression, scream, yell, blow up and take out all your frustrations on the one patient that happens to be irritating you and your staff at that moment and end up on a viral youtube clip that will depress your Urgent Care's profits for the next 2 calendar years?

Probably not.

Again, I can't comment on this specific case, since I didn't watch the whole video, but those are some general thoughts on the issues of belligerent patients, physician frustrations, burnout, EMTALA-based settings vs non-EMTALA settings and the big, bag, 800 lb gorilla in the room, which is Corporatized Medicine-On-Demand, in the year 2017.

 

[MSmentor018]

probably looking for a handout in this lawsuit prone state/physician unfriendly state. Anything to make a quick buck...
What gets me is that she waited for 1.5 hours and is throwing a fit, but is immediately ready to go to bed and see a different doctor the next day (atleast another 12-15 hours)... so you are so sick that you cant wait 1.5 hours, but are not sick enough to wait 15 hours?

I always ask them 'how long do you wait for the cable guy, 4 hrs?" isn't your health worth more than cable? if they leave, well then there's the answer. there's a police report on line, apparently physical threats were made that the husband "a big black guy" (her husband/daughter father?) is coming to inflict harm. the doc came out b/c the staff called for help. funny they didn't video that portion. the family called the cops and filed. they are found guilty so far.