Case mix

In Emergency Department (ED from now on), there is a computer program which has a floor plan of the department and patient's name/condition in their different location.

So the next patient to be seen would have a flashing star next to their name. Usually I have a look at what their purported condition may be (the nurse at the front desk writes a little comment) like
"fever and cough" or "fell on right wrist" or "chest pain" or "abdo pain".

I've found that I dread any Paediatric cases because I hate making kids cry and orthopaedic (broken bones) cases because I don't want to read Xrays (I prefer getting reports, thanks).

I don't mind old people but they do take a lot of work. They usually come with 4-5 problems (major ones) but because they take up a lot of time, someone else can see the other patients (hehe).

I don't mind Obs/Gynae either. It's pretty interesting. I'm sure patients would prefer a female doctor in this instance.

I don't mind acute injuries because they are easy to fix. Lacerations, wounds etc. Just patch them up and they go home.

So far I have not come across a Psychiatric case but I do not want to hihi. When I came into work yesterday there was a patient who was going to be involuntarily admitted (by force). He was walking around the ED shouting at people and swearing. No, I do not want to deal with those kind of patients!

But overall I do not like ED, because every time we want a patient to be admitted into hospital, we have to call the consultant-on-call and "sell" the story to him/her so he/she will accept the patient to be under his/her care. Some of them are nice but some are grumpy and rude.

Then if the consultant approves, then we have to call the registrar to come and formally admit the patients (interview the patient and make admission notes). The registrar is usually alright but after the 4th admission of the day, she becomes pretty snappy and bad-tempered.

I'd like to tell her, well, life would be easier if there weren't so many sick people. But then, we would be jobless, wouldn't we hehe.