To be fair sometimes there's nowhere else to take your toe pain. Many years ago, at 9 pm, Dad stepped on a stick with his bare foot, and it ended up buried so deep into his heel that only a tiny bit was showing. At that time there weren't any doctors open, we could tell he'd likely need local anesthetic to get the damn thing out and so the ER was his only option. He ended up having to wait 10 hours because more urgent cases came in. Sure enough, he needed local and a small cut in his foot so that the stick could be pulled out and the wound thoroughly flushed. We really need an option for those sorts of situations so ERs aren't flooded with minor things like that.
I once went in for an asthma attack. I did need to be there, but the waiting room was wall to wall with people who had a nasty summer influenza. I thought, “if I’m not sick and don’t have lung trouble, I will,” signed out, and got my breathing under control at home.
Aren't there exceptions? Like if you pose a danger to yourself or others, or have psych stuff like suicidal thoughts? I always thought "against medical advice" was like, you really really should be here. Like, you can leave i guess, but its dumb to do so. Medical staff strongly advise against it
Yes there is an exception for psychiatric patients but a super drunk person who needs their stomach pumped or an addict that just overdosed isn't forced to stay. It's a bit of a double standard if you ask me.
To be fair sometimes there's nowhere else to take your toe pain. Many years ago, at 9 pm, Dad stepped on a stick with his bare foot, and it ended up buried so deep into his heel that only a tiny bit was showing. At that time there weren't any doctors open, we could tell he'd likely need local anesthetic to get the damn thing out and so the ER was his only option. He ended up having to wait 10 hours because more urgent cases came in. Sure enough, he needed local and a small cut in his foot so that the stick could be pulled out and the wound thoroughly flushed. We really need an option for those sorts of situations so ERs aren't flooded with minor things like that.
I once went in for an asthma attack. I did need to be there, but the waiting room was wall to wall with people who had a nasty summer influenza. I thought, “if I’m not sick and don’t have lung trouble, I will,” signed out, and got my breathing under control at home.
Aren't there exceptions? Like if you pose a danger to yourself or others, or have psych stuff like suicidal thoughts?
I always thought "against medical advice" was like, you really really should be here. Like, you can leave i guess, but its dumb to do so. Medical staff strongly advise against it
Yes there is an exception for psychiatric patients but a super drunk person who needs their stomach pumped or an addict that just overdosed isn't forced to stay. It's a bit of a double standard if you ask me.