Doctors Share The Things You Should Never Do At The ER

Here’s a basic truth of human life: No one plans a visit to the emergency room, and no one really wants to be there. The unexpected, oh-crap-now-I’m-in-trouble nature of the place means that everyone who’s rolled in there to be seen probably had a very different plan for the rest of their day.

But just because you’re sick and scared, you really don’t need to take your frustrations out on the people around you, especially the people who are there to help you get better.

“Patients and their families come to the Emergency Department on their worst and most stressful days, and we’re here to support them through it,” said Dr. J. David Gatz, associate medical director of the Adult Emergency Department for the University of Maryland Medical Center. “We’re extremely understanding overall, but we’re often seeing many cases at one time, and it’s critical that the behavior of one person not negatively impact another.”

What’s happening in ERs these days often is an emergency, and not just because of the sick people who are waiting there to be treated. Patients and visitors are acting out in increasingly troublesome ways, many staffers say.

HuffPost spoke to some medical professionals who offered very simple suggestions for making their lives — and yours, potentially — a little bit easier in the ER.

And if you think, “Why do we even need to remind people of this?” we agree with you, and we hope this article helps. Here’s what to do ― and not do.

If you’ve had to visit an emergency room lately, you might have noticed a big sign at check-in declaring the venue to be a “healing environment” and letting you know that the staff would super-duper appreciate it if you could possibly see fit to avoid physically or verbally assaulting them, thanks a jillion (or something along those lines).

Why would anyone punch someone who’s there to help them get better? That’s what doctors and nurses would like to know, too, since many of them increasingly experience patient behavior that’s scary and dangerous.

An alarming 66% of emergency room physicians reported being assaulted in the past year, according to one study, with over one‑third reported being assaulted multiple times. In another study, 71% of physicians have witnessed an assault at work; 97% say perpetrators were patients.

If this seems unbelievable, it’s important to note that every health care professional interviewed for this story mentioned physical and verbal violence as a top concern. To drive the point home, here are some recent incidents that Gatz has seen in his ER:

• Breaking equipment and computers

• Breaking windows

• Throwing and smearing bodily waste on surfaces and walls

• Throwing food

• Self-removing IVs and then walking out while dripping blood on the floor

• Calling 911 from within the ER to complain they haven’t been seen (this one wins the prize for “most meta”)

Let’s say you just stubbed your toe and decided to go to the ER. While you’re there, a massive traffic accident has flooded local health care facilities, and all the staff are struggling to save lives. You might have been waiting a very long time, but can you understand how your owie, while painful, may not be the top priority right now?

Apparently, many people don’t understand that, which leads to ugly scenes between angry patients and beleaguered staff.

“We prioritize based on acuity,” explained Dr. Jared L. Ross, a board-certified emergency physician who was an EMT, paramedic and firefighter before becoming a doctor. His point is that unless you have access to “the board” of all incoming patients, you have no idea how serious your issue really is compared to others. Ross acknowledges that this is a hard truth: “I know that wait times can be atrocious in busy ERs,” he said.

Sometimes, though, wait times are exacerbated by patients who force things to take much longer than they need to. Emma W., a second-year emergency medicine resident who asked that her full name not be used, recently entered a treatment room in which the patient flashed her the “not now” finger signal, because they were on the phone with a friend and didn’t want to be “interrupted.”

“That patient later complained about how long it took to be seen, insisting they be ‘sped up’ because they had a concert that night that they couldn’t miss,” she said.

“I’ve also had patients tell me they’ll only see a male doctor (I’m female), but when no male doctors were on duty, the patient was irate because they had to wait for a man to clock in on the next shift or to ‘give in’ and see a female doctor,” she added.

While Ross encourages patients and family members to be good health care advocates, there are effective ways to do that. If something about the patient’s condition is changing, and, for example, their mild chest pain is getting worse, then do let the care team know. But reminding everyone about how long you’ve been waiting and asking repeatedly about when you’ll be seen is not the best tactic.

“Demanding to be seen ‘right now’ will disrupt staff focus, scare other patients and create unnecessary tension in an already high-stress environment,” said Kisha Pickford, an acute care nurse practitioner with more than two decades of clinical experience in emergency room settings. “People forget that ER teams are juggling trauma, sepsis, stroke and COVID, not just mild fevers or stubbed toes. Courtesy and patience go a long way.”

“I’ve seen firsthand how patient and family behavior in the ER can either support or severely disrupt the care process,” Pickford said. “The ER is not the place to yell, take phone calls on speaker or bring five people into the room to ‘check on mom.’”

“Who you bring with you to the ER matters,” said registered nurse Karen Selby. “A calm, supportive companion can make the experience smoother. But bringing large groups into a small treatment space creates noise and chaos, making it harder for staff to work quickly and safely.

“Unfortunately, family members and visitors sometimes display verbally or physically aggressive behaviors, like yelling about wait times, insisting upon immediate attention or even threatening staff,” Selby said. “This pulls attention away from patients in critical condition and can delay care if security has to become involved.”

If the emergency room seems more crowded than ever, there are many reasons for that. One of them, ER staffers said, is that while urgent care and clinic visits might be the right course of treatment for many situations, many people rush to the ER instead. Then they wait for a long time in a crowded waiting room because non-emergencies aren’t treated as quickly as medical emergencies.

“ERs are designed to prioritize life-threatening conditions first, such as heart attacks, strokes and trauma,” Selby said. “If you come in with a minor issue, you may wait hours while more critical patients are treated.”

There’s another reason to reconsider an ER visit if your condition isn’t truly an emergency, she added: “ER visits are among the most expensive options for care. Even with insurance, copays and deductibles are usually far higher than urgent care or primary care visits.”

Ross said, “There are a lot of patients who come to the ER and don’t need to be seen there, and then are unwilling to understand that they can’t be the top priority at all times. Of course, you should never hesitate to seek care, and we are really here to help out with any emergency, but it might be a good idea to ‘self-triage’ and ask yourself if what you’re experiencing could be seen more quickly in another medical facility. It doesn’t always have to be the ER.”