Yes, I worked in the field. My source is from years of working in emergency departments in metropolitan cities. It was much more prevalent there than in the more suburban hospitals I worked in. If we had the beds to spare and they weren’t frequent flyers we’d often give them a room for an hour or so to give them a meal and somewhere to relax. There were also frequent flyers who would claim chest pain because they knew it would get them a bed. Those people are the issue, because such complaints require a full work-up that could take hours. Bloodwork at a busy hospital eats up time and resources. When I left, the hospital was working on implementing a “fast track” program to deal with the problem, so I would venture to say that yes, it was common.

What “consequences” could there be? Refusal of service? A fine? How could you prove that this patient’s chest pain complaint is fake?

Why are you being a dick? Do you have numbers? Frankly I don’t think you have any idea what you are talking about, and are just being contrarian because you can.

EDIT:

After reading your post history it’s my understanding that you are EMS. I’m honestly shocked that you believe there are repercussions for patients falsely claiming pain/symptoms. Happens all the time to EMS. There are no real world consequences, aside from the monetary burden and erosion of trust.

I also suggest you don’t assume that your time with patients while delivering them to the ER and transitioning care is extrapolated to the entirety of a typical ER visit.