Emergency Room Workers Share Things They Wish Patients Would Stop Coming In For

Called emergency rooms (ER), emergency departments (ED), or trauma centers, hospitals usually have a place where ambulances bring people. Most of those places also allow people to bring themselves there.

But not everyone who walks into an ER or arrives by ambulance needs to be there.

To cut back on people seeking emergency treatment for nonemergencies, many hospitals opened urgent care or walk-in clinics for people who weren't in danger of dying, but whose condition couldn't wait the days, weeks, or months it would take to be seen by their primary care physician.

But some people still bypass urgent care or walk-in clinics and go straight to the ER.

And then there are cases and conditions emergency department personnel wish people didn't need to see them for.

Reddit user iloveeatingfood901 asked:

"To anyone who works at the ER, what is one thing you wish people would STOP coming to the ER for?"

Post-Game

"Children's ER for a common cold, but make sure you wait until after the game is over on a Sunday night."

"It wasn't an emergency until after the game was done—not all day Sunday when the urgent care clinic was open."

~ MNConcerto

"The Sunday night cough, congestion, fever rush. Like you can time the ending of the game and get 10-15 patients coming to be seen in a 30-minute time period."

~ sluttypidge

Hunger

"Hunger. It's just terribly sad."

~ CipherWeaver

"This one is wayyyy more common than people think. Usually people will beat around the bush and have some fake complaint, but every once in a while someone will just straight up tell you in triage 'I'm hungry'."

"That and exposure to the elements. I've worked ER in Denver in winter and Phoenix in the summer, and there's constantly someone there for 'man, it's just too hot/cold out there'."

~ K-Tanz

Family History

"When my kid's appendix burst, and we were checking in to the ER, this horrible couple came barging in, just freaking out and screaming and tried to butt in front of us because their infant had eaten a grape."

"The baby was showing no signs of distress, but the mom's grandmother was allergic to grapes, so obviously, their baby was about to die."

"We were like, 'I think we got dibs, lady'."

~ jpow33

Wait Time

"Honestly, as an ER nurse, I have sympathy for most people. You never know if they can’t afford the copay to go to urgent care or primary care."

"Maybe they’re a recovering (or current) addict who ruined relationships with all local clinics by missing appointments. Maybe their abusive family member works at their primary care, and they’re unable to go elsewhere."

"But understand that if you’re not dying, others may be, and you’ll have a wait."

"Understand that not all services are available in the ER."

"Treat patients and staff with basic respect (while advocating for yourself or your family as needed)."

~ StrongArgument

Unhoused

"I used to work on a psych unit, and we had some regulars who came into the ER and knew the exact things to say to get admitted for a couple of days."

"They just wanted three hots and a cot. We didn't mind. We treated them like any other patient, and some even participated in the unit activities."

"Most of them just SLEPT. It was sad."

~ DerpsAndRags

Pregnancy Test

"To get a pregnancy test. Because they don't want the embarrassment of buying one."

~ PrisonNurseNC

"I had it explained to me that you can get fast-tracked for Medicaid enrollment if you have a positive pregnancy test, but it has to be a lab test (not an at home one) from a clinic or a hospital."

"If you don't have insurance, going to a regular doctor or UC is cost-prohibitive, but the ER can't turn you away. So. They go to the ER to get the test to get Medicaid."

~ mythicalcatturds

"Sometimes testing at home isn't safe because of parents/guardians or an abusive partner."

~ Walmartian_Beta

Shot Record

"Bringing their child to the ER because they have to have immunizations to go to school, so let's get them in the ER at three in the morning."

~ AbilitySweet699

Failure to Follow Instructions

"I want them to stop coming BACK to the ER. All the time we had people come, wait the long wait, see the doctor, get a prescription, go home, and come back the next day without ever picking up their prescription."

"We already helped you! We already did what we could! You have to do your part too by *telling us the correct pharmacy* and then *going to that pharmacy* and then *taking your medication!*"

~ girl_in_a_blue_dress

Anxious Parent

"I had to have a serious talk with my friend once, she was a young mother (18) and would take her baby to the ER over every sniffle, cough, and fever."

"I told her, the ER is not a walk-in clinic, he only needs to go if he's having trouble breathing or if his temp spikes really high. Otherwise, take him to the f*cking clinic or to his pediatrician."

"She got SO mad at me, but a few years later told me I was right and she was going way too often. I get it, young, freaked out, trying to do it on your own, it's rough."

~ Walmartian_Beta

Common Cold

"Bringing both your kids to the ER because one is getting a cold and the other one is surely going to get it soon. They want both of them to be treated."

"Neither of them will get any treatment if it's just a cold."

~ AbilitySweet699

Doctor's Note

"Needing work notes when they know they are well enough to return to work."

"It's not because of the patient, it's the employers requiring them too. I don't blame the patients at all."

~ DrBearcut

"The workplace should have to pay for that doctor's note since it was asked for in the context of work. They'd stop asking for them real fast."

~ NatoBoram

For-Profit Healthcare

"From my dad (ER doc) throughout my life I’ve heard quite a lot, but the thing that made him angriest and that he most often vented about, as the most frustrating and demoralizing thing imaginable, that he dealt with regularly; the casual cruelty of a system where issues that could have been treated successfully a long time ago weren’t, because people couldn’t afford it, had no insurance and/or were simply scared to risk official contact."

"People come to the ER for those kinds of issues when it’s finally apparent to them that there’s no choice, it’s an actual emergency. That’s usually way after whatever is wrong actually crossed the line into being a legitimate emergency."

"These patients quite often lose limbs to uncontrolled infection, will develop and endure permanent issues, become critically ill (ICU sick), and/or even pass away. Painfully and unnecessarily, in a hospital that pays the CEO more in a year than the average lowest paid full time employee will make in several lifetimes."

~ jjamesr539

ER Virus Soup

"If you take your kid to a hospital during cold and flu season, they're going to be sick by the time they leave the waiting room even if they weren't when you arrived."

~ tarlton

"That's the truth. I have asthma and every damn time I go to the ER for anything, I get a respiratory infection of some sort, even if I wear a mask—it's just in the air there."

~ Walmartian_Beta

Hangnail

"One guy told me when I asked him what brought him to the ER, that he had a hangnail on his toe."

"I guess I did a bit of a double take and he said, defensively, 'my feet are important to me'."

~ AbilitySweet699

Bum Stuff

"Worked for trauma surgeons. We all wished people would stop putting things up their butt."

~ Lgallegos17

"I would like to remind you that this person went from having a GREAT night to a terrible one. Once treated, I make sure to corner the patients and tell them:"

"1. A plausible lie they can tell folks as to why they were in the ED and cannot sit down (thrombosed hemorrhoid, back pain)."

"2. What CAN go in their butt. They always swear never again, but I forge on with the lecture, because once they stimulate the prostate, they always want to do it again."

~ Queenpunkster

What's the worst reason you've heard of for someone going to the ER?