when everything is an emergency

When everything is an emergency, few things are an emergency.  As my resident told me, "If you see us running, then it must be something really bad."  I admire the cool-headed, collected demeanor of the nurses and physicians, a far cry from my own anxiety and fearfulness at putting in IVs (needles into veins that stay there so that the medical team has easy access for blood draws or administering medications or fluids). 

Thus, when I saw a very senior attending go running to the ER entrance today, I was desperately curious what possibly could be considered an emergency.  Was it a terrible trauma?  A man bleeding to death on the sidewalk?

As it turns out, a patient had run off.  He was faster, though .  He caught her and brought her back.

* * *

The other emergency today was a "Code Blue."  The residents, nurses, and attendings flocked to the ED entrance like ants to honey or mosquitos to a particularly tasty-smelling patch of human skin - not running, but walking intently with purpose.

As it turns out, a patient had leaned back onto the button and called a false alert.  Everything went back to normalcy quickly.