Frequent flyers. The bane of every ER's existence. They come in many shapes and sizes.Some are just incapable of being organized enough to have their own doctor or they just don't care. They use the ER as their personal clinic. Some are drunks who end up in the ER when people get tired of them laying on the street. A lot of them have chronic pain in one form or the other and their doctors are sick of them. Then there are the chronically mentally ill.
What do all of these people have in common? Anxiety. Depression. Loneliness. Ineffective coping skills. They need a friend, a lot of them. Somebody to listen to them. Have fun with them.
So I have this scathingly brilliant idea... let's have a party. We invite all of the frequent flyers. It will be a large party, God knows. Put on some tunes. Get some cheetos. Punch. Party games.
They have a lot in common. They could talk to each other about their terrible lives. Make friends. Perhaps there will even be a spark of romance. More friends and less lone
liness = less visits to ER = happy ER staff. Everybody wins.
You have people that don't bother to establish a relationship with a healthcare provider so they just end up in the ER with a larger bill than necessary. There are others who believe they can get assistance from the ER in the form of shelter, protection, and company of others. Then there are those people who try to get medications because another doctor won't give it to them.. and some may be dependent on them, so they try to go somewhere where they have no history. It is crazy to believe that there are people out there that have no one to talk to. I had a customer call a store I worked at practically everyday asking the same questions about her bill just because she must've felt lonely and wanted to make conversation with someone. -MH
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