Watch the show a few times and you will see how those doctors and nurses work all the time with few breaks. It is always like a mad house in there, I don't know how they do it. The characters are very dedicated to their patients. I think they are just overwhelmed with the volume of patients that come in. They are understaffed and overworked.

They have had a lot of security problems like several doctors have been attacked on past episodes, and one doctor was even killed by a patient. I have watched this show since it began and just saw this episode as an addict who was trying to get a fix not as a pain patient. The doc did give him a script for Vicodin which sent him into a frenzy since he did not get his drug of choice.