Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An undesirable patient or a patient who does not need medical care.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

An acronym that stands for "Get Out of My ER". The term was popularized by the 1978 novel The House of God by Samuel Shem (pen-name of Stephen Bergman). In this book, the word is applied to patients who are frequently admitted with complicated but uninspiring and incurable conditions.

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Examples

  • -- In answer to the inquiry of "GOMER" (No. 21.p. 335.),

    Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850 Various

  • -- "GOMER" may like to know that the old labourers in North Essex still speak of a day's ploughing as a "_journey at plough_."

    Notes and Queries, Number 28, May 11, 1850 Various

  • He looked, at first glance, like just another GOMER—heart failure, pneumonia, cognitive confusion—but then we got to talking.

    After the Diagnosis MD Julian Seifter 2010

  • If, on the other hand, a proposed diagnosis is dismissed as meaningless, the patient who has complaints associated with this “wastebasket” diagnosis is going to be dismissed as a GOMER.

    After the Diagnosis MD Julian Seifter 2010

  • ER's already being used as primary care facilities instead of only for emergencies has created the GOMER problem (doc) - "get out of my emergency room."

    Archive 2007-08-01 2007

  • ER's already being used as primary care facilities instead of only for emergencies has created the GOMER problem (doc) - "get out of my emergency room."

    Easter Lemming Liberal News 2007

  • 'GOMER PYLE, USMC'The popularity of Ted Baxter in the early seventies established a template for all the sitcoms to follow - that there should be one dim bulb in the array of lights that made up the ensemble.

    FOOL'S GOLD Toby O'B 2005

  • GOMER, buddy - "Get Out of My Emergency Room". zman wrote: Anyone can claim to be anything on the internet, buddy

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local shmuelman 2010

  • GOMER, buddy - "Get Out of My Emergency Room". zman wrote: Anyone can claim to be anything on the internet, buddy

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local shmuelman 2010

  • GOMER, buddy - "Get Out of My Emergency Room". zman wrote: Anyone can claim to be anything on the internet, buddy

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local shmuelman 2010

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