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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Environmental-Fan961 on 2025-05-15 02:18:03+00:00.

I was an ER charge nurse a few years back at a busy facility. In order to increase capacity during busier times, we frequently would bring patients to hallway gurneys to be seen by the doctor. It’s not a great setup, literally just a journey in the hallway in front of the nursing desk. But, if the rooms are clogged with patients waiting on beds upstairs, etc, it’s a commonly used workaround.

So, one night a few years back, we’re busy, and non-emergent patients are waiting for hours in the lobby. I am using hallway gurneys to increase throughput. I’m putting stable patients who don’t need cardiac monitors into the hallway. So, I bring the next patient from the lobby to a hall gurney. Let’s call her “Karen.”

Karen is bitching because she’s been waiting hours. Since American healthcare is all about kissing ass and patient satisfaction, I can’t tell her that she’s been waiting because her medical complaint would be dumb to take to urgent care, let alone an emergency room. We get to the hallway spot and she pitches a fit. “I’ve been waiting for hours, I deserve to be in a room, not the hallway,” and other shit like that. She sees an open doorway to an empty room and demands that we go there. I say that a different patient will be going into that room, and explain that Karen doesn’t need a cardiac monitor for her visit.

Karen crosses her arms and says something like, “I don’t care, that room is available, so you have to let me use it.” I had a department to run, and I was tired of her entitled bullshit. Pointing at the hallway gurney, I said, “Are you refusing to see the doctor in this space?” Her eyes lit up, apparently thinking she had won, and Karen said, “YES, I won’t be seen right here!”

I said, “No problem.” I waved at the security guard a few yards away and said, “Hey Tom, this lady would like to leave now.” Karen looked shocked, then started saying she never said that. I reminded her that she clearly stated that she refused to be seen in this bed, and so she was going to have to continue to wait in the lobby until a room became available.

She tried to backtrack and said something like, “Fine, I’ll see the doctor here.” I just shook my head and said, “It’s too late for that. You have already refused. Tom will escort you back to the lobby and we’ll call you back to a room as soon as we can.” Security walked her to the lobby, and she pretty quickly decided to just leave without being seen.

ETA: I’m being vague on some points on purpose, #HIPAA. But, her particular complaint was a bullshit reason to come to the ER. She was NOT going to have to disrobe or change into a gown, so visual privacy was not a real concern (it was a more private environment than a crowded lobby, that’s for sure).

I would also like to say that I was doing her a favor by letting her be seen in the hallway. I had real emergencies that needed the monitored beds, and it would have been negligent of me to give her one of those beds while making a real emergency wait longer. I was putting non-emergent patients into hallway beds to do them a favor so that they could be seen and discharged sooner. My staff was already busy with their own patients. So, these were my own patients that I was fitting in while running a 50 bed ER.