You are so right! I was thinking the same thing when I saw this. In the 70's, I was a nurse in a busy pediatric ER, and there were a some stitches, but they weren't as frequent as today. I remember in the 60's, my mom took me to a doctor who wasn't even our own when I gashed my leg on a Saturday. This was a 3" gash down through the muscle and it seems the doctor may have suggested the ER, but my mom wouldn't hear of it. She was a nurse and I know she felt the ER would be overkill, and I also remember her desperately wondering on the way what she was going to do if his office was closed, as the ER just wasn't in her mindset.

I agree with renatae, I was an RN in the ER system in the 1980's when using the ER for first aid was just increasing. This has been directly related to the mess the health insurance in our country is in.

As far as the MM episode, I thought Betty over reacted. She appeared to put butter on the burn, which many people were doing back then. It was Palm Sunday, so the MD's office would be closed, but, she could have called the MD's phone service. The MD on call would have talked her through what to do. My guess is this was a small burn, equal to a burn someone would receive if they touched a hot iron.

I think the writers put the trip to the ER in to add to the drama and problems with Don and Betty.
He had to go to the office and wasn't there for Betty.

I'm old enough to remember when doctors still made house calls (!) but also when you went to the hospital for what are now office procedures. In the early 60s I was hospitalized overnight for a Saturday morning surgical procedure - removing a ganglion cyst on my wrist - which is now done under a local in the office. I would have been under anesthesia but we'd had a blizzard the night before, and the anesthesiologist couldn't get in on time.

Given that Betty's interest in parenting seems minimal, shuffling little Bobby off to the ER is entirely in character. Let someone else handle it; she can't. She can't take care of two children, at least not at the same time, even with help. The times, they were different, but if our neighbor's child was hurt enough to go to the ER my parents wouldn't have had a problem looking after the siblings, even if it was Palm Sunday. We'd just schlepp 'em along with us to church and pull up more chairs at the table for dinner, if need be.

Hi Auburn Annie! Oh my...the days when doctors made house calls, I remember it well!
You're right about procedures that used to be done in the hospital and are now outpatient. I remember when I was a new graduate RN, patients would be in the hospital for 2 weeks of testing! I better stop now, or I'll get on my healthcare soapbox again!

I didn't understand the Francine thing either. Why couldn't Francine (Betty's best friend) take her daughter. What did Palm Sunday have to do with it? I think that it had to be written this way to increase the tension between Betty and Don, and to have the storyline about Don bringing his daughter to the office.
Great sharing with you!

Wasn't it Palm Sunday when Bobby burned himself? A visit to the emergency room seems right. My mother would have done the same thing.

Some of the things I can remember. My mother would use methiolate (awful pink stuff) as an antiseptic for a cut or scratch. Is that stuff still around?

My mother believed in Witch Hazel for everything.

If you were sick, mother would prepare an awful egg nog made of raw eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. Does anybody recall that?

I think Betty jumped on the situation to make Don feel guilty and to make him be involved with the family that day-better dysfunctional attention than no attention! She got to dramatize her role as caretaker and make a bigger deal than it needed to be about how hard her life is.
In 1971 I almost died from a ruptured appendix, 9 years old, semi-conscious. We met the family doctor at the hospital.

That's a good guess, Turtle...because doctors would have responded even on Palm Sunday back then.

I remember when the doctor came to our house to give us our booster shots of something...That's one thing from back then that I really do wish still existed.

That butter on the burn thing made me laugh so hard.

I was three or four, and it's my first memory ever of going, "holy crap, these people don't know what they're doing! this damned butter is killing me!"

Hi Dry Manhattan! Too funny! Who would have thought that some ice or cold water would do the trick on a minor burn, that's the primary treatment today. And it numbs the pain. I still don't know who invented the butter cure?

Hi Dry Manhattan! Too funny! Who would have thought that some ice or cold water would do the trick on a minor burn, that's the primary treatment today. And it numbs the pain. I still don't know who invented the butter cure?

I double clicked again, it must be close to show time, my hands are shaking!!

i think the butter on the burn thing falls under the category of "don't eat a tuna sandwich and milk on a hot day - it'll kill you.

It was a gaffe for sure. (I posted a comment about it elsewhere.)
I'm an ER doc (in fact I'm on duty right now--goofing off on this site during a bit of down time).
We're always astonished at the minor injuries parents bring their kids in for, i.e., our parents (and the Drapers) would have used common sense.