Behold the Referral! "Just go to the ER"

Just had a shift full of referrals. Saw about 16 patients (slow day), and 10 of them were referrals of one sort or another. And ridiculous ones too: 1. 24 yo woman with a dental abscess in her mandibular cheek. She saw her dentist earlier today who prescribed clindamycin and sent her to the ED to have the abscess drained. I asked her "your dentist is sending you to a doctor who knows nothing about teeth to drain an abscess? I've done this about 20 times in my life. He's presumably done... Behold the Referral! "Just go to the ER"
Source: Student Doctor Network - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Emergency Medicine Source Type: forums