Would You Like Some Cheese With Your Whine?

As the acuity in the waiting room plummets, the drama factor rises exponentially. There must be an equation for this; please post it if you can think of it. Whine, whine, whine, that's all I heard today. What is wrong with these people? I spent eight hours in my beloved triage box, and it was one bonehead after the other. A number of people presented with cold symptoms. Has there been some new ad in Good Housekeeping that encourages people to go directly to the nearest ER with a runny nose lasting more that 2 days? There were quite a few with vomiting. Tough call on vomiting and when it is appropriate to go to the ER, but I will say that nausea and vomiting x 1 before heading out will bump you down the acuity list. It will further be downgraded if you are asking for change for the snack machine or eating Cheetoh's.

It is a sad commentary on the art of triage that one's flair for drama sometimes gets a bed before others when all else is of equal (and low) acuity. By far the Academy Award went to a young woman who moaned, groaned, wailed, cried, carried on as if an alien baby was about to burst forth from her chest. I guess vomiting for 5 months will do that to a person. Her enabler / mouthpiece husband was right there to lend support and advocacy. Although she had normal vital signs, I had to get her out of the waiting room because she was Causing a Scene. Later I found out that she Caused a Scene about being discharged, and was admitted with an order for NO NARCOTICS OR BENZOS, and a psych consult. Good, I am glad her problems will be addressed and that she wasn't just kicked to the curb with more pain meds.