Has Anyone Been Mistreated By an ER Doctor?

[EMTizzle]

I read the posts about the nurses being nasty, but how about those docs. Now I have to admit, more often then not, they are all for us and will support us and go to bat for us. But then you got those glorified er docs who have been watching far too much er (the television show). Not only do they treat their patients like crap, but they treat us like that too. I remember this one lady doc was sitting at the desk twiddling her thumbs (literally). I needed to get some supplies and all of the nurses were busy, I walked over and told her "scuse me mam, but could you point me in the direction of the supply closet". She rolled her eyes and sat up in her chair and pointed at her name tag and said, "look I'm a DOCTOR OK, I don't know where the supplies are" now notice I said that she was a lady doc. Well I said that because, as I tell this story I know NOW that she is a doctor, at the time I didn't realize it and if I did, I would have asked one of the overworked nurses. I found out when she showed me her name tag. I gave her a geez lady I'm sorry look and headed to the rig. I told my buddies what happened and they all but fell on the ground laughing, they told me that you never ask the doctors anything at this particular hospital but to sign off on the sheet and get out. For whatever reason the doctor's at this particular hospital hated EMS and made sure to let them know it. My AIC told me, no matter what she did, every time she bought a pt in, the doctor questioned her care, if the person was in COPD the doctor yelled about her bringing the pt in at all, even though they had a O2 sat of 89 and pink froth around the lips and altered LOC. And that has actually happened. I don't understand the American healthcare system right now, the govt., and private insurance is cutting money from programs everyday, which makes it harder and harder for the doctors and the nurses to do their jobs. Instead of raises they are getting sued and more pt's to take care of. Here in VA more and more volunteer rescue squads are beginning to charge for care because the counties that they are located in are pulling more and more money away and the people living in these counties are giving less and less, yet expecting more and more. So our hands are tied in a major way for EMS and through the hospitals. I think the other topic of nasty nurses and my topic on nasty doctor's is just a symptom of a bigger problem. The American healthcare system is getting ready to go belly up and before we know it we will end up with socialized medicine. you think doctor's and nurses are nasty now?! I think these days will be fondly remembered as the good ol days, in just a few short years.

phew....ok now I'm climbing down off my soap box.

[akeith106]

Most of the ER docs where I work are pretty good... I have not really had any consistent problems with any of them. Now, of course you will catch them on a bad day and they can be nasty, but that goes for everyone, myself included.

The Docs around here are usually very supportive of EMS... My Med-Com Doc even wants to be an instructor for some of the con-ed classes that I am planning... I guess I must be lucky to work in a city where there are so many hospitals and doctors....

[fdnyemt5330]

most of the ER docs around my way are pretty good too. one of them even makes a point about teaching us points about the pt's condition that are above and beyond what an EMT class would.

[tunnelrat83]

most of them are great... but occasionally there is one who is just a complete ass some of the time...

[THE_DITCH_DOCTOR]

Our medical director can be a royal prick, but he usually has a point for being this way (otherwise, he can be a very nice guy). If you do something you had better be ready to explain the reasoning for it in gratuitous detail because that is what is expected of you. He basically treats us like you would expect a resident to be treated. He very strongly believes that we (especially the I's from our service and the P's from a couple of other services) are field extensions of his abilities (he jokingly refers to us as his "ditch doctors") and therefore we should be as knowledgeable and skilled as he is.

As for the ego, he jokes that he wouldn't be such an a--hole if he didn't have his paramedic certification as well.

[Alcomedicism]

I havent had much of a problem here, but there are a few and thankfully I havent had the pleasure to deal with them yet, but I have heard a story or two.

When I was doing my clinicals in the ER, the doc I got to work with was pretty nice. He showing me diff. ways to spot a frequent flyer and how to tell if the pt really was as serious as they let on. He even taught me few Doc skills such as spotting certain fractures on a x-ray, and he taught me how to use the ER defribillator, thats where my interest ofr EKGs got sparked, though it is diff. Also the nurses there were extremely helpful. And finally I had a blast in the ER, more fun than I thought it would be. Im just glad I was able to have the good experience instead of a bad one.

-Dixie

[VillageEMT]

We rarely see doctors in the ER unless we have a major trauma or CPR. Then they are all ears and want to know exactly what happened and what we did about it, STAT. If you are ready with your report all is well. We make a point of always being ready. Our Medical Director is an ER doctor and is very supportive of our efforts to improve the service we provide.

When I did my clinical time the ER was packed. My Nurse Preceptor had four cardiac pts so she just told me to take the next pt who came in the door and follow them through the whole process. This was just what I had wanted to do, so it worked out great. When the doctor and resident came around they started to examine the pt and I filled them in on some details which were not in the chart. They must have seen my "EMT Basic Student" badge (I was in uniform as well) but they included me in the treatment discussion as a matter of course. Later, the resident came back to check on how the treatment was going he asked me for my observations as well as talking to the pt.

Sometimes it helps to be 55 with iron gray hair and a professional demeanor, even when you are only an EMT Basic Student.

[bumper]

Our ER Dr.s are pretty good most of the time. Since we are a critical care facility only we have alot of visiting Dr.'s from the bigger hospitals. They come down and think "gravy" and what they get is 48 to 72 hours of "clinic". They usually laugh and come back time and time again though.

Our Med. Director refuses to work in the ER after 5 pm, doesn't like to take any info from women and gets really upset when we bring people in that are intoxicated or over weight.

He actually sent a pt home because they were drunk and not very clean, being mouthy. He said,"Tell them to go home, it will work itself out" Crazy, huh?

On the upside though, most of our RN's are pretty dang friendly no matter what. We usually stay and help them if they are busy. There is only one nurse on staff every 12 hours. (That is how small we are)

[mediccjh]

The hospital I usually take patients to is the 3rd busiest in Pennsylvania. All but one doc are great. If we want something we get it.

Most of the docs in the Lehigh Valley hospitals are great, except at one particular one...I won't name.

[ambogrl]

Ha! You must be kidding me! Well we don't see MD's much our nurses run the show most of the time unless its a trauma case or a code. But they all aren't too bad except the medical director is such a pr**k that most of the other ED docs are leaving our main hosp for other posts elsewhere. Our nurses can be assh*les too, there are a few that are real nice especially the travel RN's...... we just know who to talk to and who to avoid. Some will chew us out for hanging in the nurses break room (even when our computer station was located there, we couldn't complete our PCR's without going in there!) while others will chill with us.