I completely agree. I have a couple of questions. Had she been there 10 times before for things like the sniffles? Had she lied to the ER staff in the past? Was she a patient who was a drug seeker and had sold her pain medicine in the past? Was the staff busy treating emergencies like a family of illegal aliens with athlete’s foot? Were the rooms full of medicaid recipients with sunburn demanding treatment? Had she been told to follow up with her primary care doctor for this condition earlier and didn’t, then returned when it was too late? It sounds callous, but these are all real situations that I have dealt with in the ER. I have to give the benefit of the doubt to the staff. No one would leave someone in the hall if they thought it was a true emergency.
Too bad there aren’t more physicians who see it this way. The insane state of affairs in our medical system could never have reached this point without the active and tacit support of a solid majority of practicing physicians.
see post 90