A story that is shared in ERs across the country:
If you present to the ER with chief complaints of headache AND chest pain, then you are most likely suffering from an anxiety disorder . . .. . . Don’t worry, I’m still going to do the CT scans, ECG, cardiac monitoring, and blood tests anyway. I’ll probably even admit you. Maybe you’ve got Lyme Disease. Probably not. Expect a humongous bill when you are discharged with nothing. It costs a lot to make sure your anxiety disorder isn’t something worse, and either of your complaints MIGHT be something serious. However, in my experience, the presence of chest pain and headache together is almost diagnostic of anxiety disorder without any tests at all. Unfortunately the lawyers have trained us to order a gazillion tests and overadmit to cover our butts.
