Social Engineering in the ED?  I’ve been having the same
interaction in the ED, day in and night out, since I began:
me: Hello, I’m GruntDoc, what is the problem today?  patient:
umm….   I feel bad.  me: okay, what does that mean to you?  Do
you have pain?  pt: uh, well, I uh, it started a while ago, and
now it’s not better…  What follows is usually a long question
and answer session to clarify the problems, timing, etc.  (I
keep reading that if we just let patients talk they’ll tell us
what’s wrong with them.  I tried that one day, I really did, and
I either got very long, strange silences or a literally 5 minute
long monologue that went nowhere.  Maybe that works in office-
based practice, but it doesn’t often work in the ED).   Please
understand I’m not making fun of patients, what I’m trying to
point out is that patients present without actually thinking
about how to describe their problem(s).  (There’s the exception,
and they’re rare, and usually complicated).  So, I wonder if a
little social engineerin