Dr. Russ Orpik, a 3rd year emergency medicine resident, recently finished a long and grueling 18 hour shift in the emergency department at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. Dr. Orpik saw over 100 patients during his 18 hours, but not one was classified as an “emergency”.
“It was pretty much 18 straight hours of “I just don’t feel well” or “I Googled my symptoms and I think I have a tumour,” explains Orpik. Well it is common for people to go to the emergency room when it is unnecessary, it is rare to go an entire shift solely seeing these types of patients.
“Usually our emergency medicine rotation is considered one of the hardest. One of the busiest,” says Dr. Peter Muller, attending physician at Memorial Regional Hospital. “While we certainly don’t want to see people who are very ill or very injured, the residents need that experience and training.”
Some people who present at the emergency department are actually in need of emergency medical care, but more and more people are coming to the ER when they simply don’t need to. Sue Johnson, 64, says she comes to the ER even if she is feeling fine because she likes the waiting room magazines and talking to the other patients. “I like it here. They have new magazines, there’s always plenty of people to talk to, and I like to watch Family Feud on mute,” explains Johnson.
If this trend continues, the hospital is considering planting fake patients in the ER who present with more serious issues in order to give the residents more experience.
“We’re not sure what else to do” says Dr. Muller. “The residents need to learn how to treat emergencies, not just the sniffles and ‘Google-Tumours’.”
