Being questioned in ER about domestic violence

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applecruncher

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Friend and I were talking about mutual experiences in hospital ER. She said she had to go to ER due to a fall/twisted and she was taken aback when the intake person asked if it was due to a domestic violence issue.

I told her something similar happened to me when my shoulder was hurting after an accident several yrs ago. I went to ER to have an exam/x-ray. The intake person asked "Is there domestic violence in the house"?

I can see where someone might be surprised by the question, but I see nothing wrong with it. They're just doing their job; and I'm sure there are many cases where a "fall" or "accident" is really masking a DV or child abuse problem.

A few summers ago I was returning from a walk. It was very hot and I'd walked further than I'd intended. I stopped, wiped the sweat from my forehead, and leaned against a tree to rest, and a police car pulled up and asked if I was okay. I explained I was just resting. The officer asked if everything was okay at home and asked if I needed a ride. I said yes, I was fine, told him I was just a couple blocks from home, and thanked him for his concern.

Again, just doing his job.
 

I agree with both of you. If they can get some domestic violence victims to admit what happened to them, it's all good.
 

There's a protocol concerning MD's and what the insurance companies want when there is a visit. It'd bother me when there would be a family member in the room with the patient, anyone really think there will be (in some cases) and honest answer concerning personal things? Not really. I do think it's a good idea to ask certain questions.
 
As a former Social Worker, I was considered a Mandated Reporter. That is someone who is required to report suspicions of abuse. Teachers, medical professionals and others in similar professions are the same.
One day I went to my PCP for a routine visit. I had a large bruise on my abdomen from a legitimate bump. She saw it and asked immediately what it was from, and if I wanted to "report" anything. During my last couple of visits I have been asked if I have experienced any abuse.
 
I bruise very easily and being a klutz , I've always got bruises on my arms and shins. I don't know where half of them come from. My husband always joked that he hopes no one thinks he did that to me ! If someone did ask me ,I don't think I'd be offended . I know they're just looking out for me.
 
They've been doing that for a long time. When my daughter was about 4, she stood up in a shopping cart in the store and fell out of it, breaking her arm. At the ER, they pointedly asked HER (not me) how her arm got hurt. Obviously, they were checking for abuse. And this was back in the 60's.
 
Toomuchstuff said:
I bruise very easily and being a klutz , I've always got bruises on my arms and shins. I don't know where half of them come from. My husband always joked that he hopes no one thinks he did that to me ! If someone did ask me ,I don't think I'd be offended . I know they're just looking out for me.
Click to expand...

I used to bruise very easily, and I was unaware of when and where they happened. I stopped taking "an aspirin a day" and it all stopped. I mentioned it to the doctor and he said I did the right thing.
 
About 20 years ago, I slipped in the kitchen and managed to land on my face, breaking my nose. My late husband drove me to the ER as I couldn't stop the bleeding. I remember they asked my husband to leave the cubicle and then asked me if I was a victim of domestic violence. I said no and nothing else was said.

He felt like everyone was glaring at him when we were out in public.....me with two black swollen eyes and a nose packed up and taped.
 
I did the exact thing a couple years ago Jujube !!! Flat on my face in the kitchen. .Broke my nose and looked like a raccoon with bruises on my face for weeks. Good thing it was near Halloween - I joked that it was make up. I didn't dare go out with my husband ..... he would have gotten some dirty looks !

* BUT , of course ...... that situation was really good for alittle blackmail *evil grin*
 
Those kinds of questions are routine here when you show up for medical care with injuries. I don't know whether they ask those questions of males when they show up injured, but I've been asked questions like that about as far back as I can remember.

Back in the early 70s I had a spell where it seemed like almost every other day I was showing up at our military hospital with an injured kid in tow from crazy things like falling out of a tree, trying to jump over the back of a couch following a dog who did the same thing, deciding to jump off a swing at school, getting bonked in the head by another kid who turned around abruptly with a stepladder, etc., and I was beginning to wonder what the personnel there thought of me, even though the kiddos all told them exactly what had happened. Fortunately that spell ended and I was able to take "trip to ER" off my to-do list.
 
I fell over a box and landed on my shoulder and broke my upper arm. It caused many deep bruises and after my arm was healing, a couple of months later, the doctor said, "Were those bruises there before?" I said yes and it seemed silly because he was the one who examined me and had said it would take time for them to go away. I was wondering if he thought it was something that had happened in my home besides my fall.
 
Several years ago I was working part time as a bouncer in a rough little honky-tonk out in the boondocks and I was accidentally stabbed in the abdomen while breaking up an altercation between a couple of drunken rowdy locals.

After getting things under control, and now with the help of another fella, we ushered / threw the two men out and told them to vacate the property, I then grabbed a bar towel and put it on top of the wound under my shirt and drove myself to the ER.

When entering the ER I was asked about the wound and then I was quickly taken to have a CT scan to see if any internal organs had been injured......luckily for me the knife had entered at an angle as opposed to going straight inwards and although the puncture was about 3" deep no organs were injured.



After the scan I was rolled back into my curtained cubical for stitches and I saw that because I had informed them that it was a stab wound the ER personnel had immediately called the police and I saw that I had two officers waiting for me to file a report.

Because the stabbing happened while breaking up the fight and was unintentional I told the two local cops that I had thrown a knife at an old tire in the backyard and that the knife had bounced back and struck me......I'm pretty sure that they knew I was lying but being unable to prove otherwise they left.

I think that being questioned about any injury in the ER would depend on if the ER personnel felt that it may have been caused by any type of violence.
 

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