Report: U.S. hospital emergency rooms overcrowded

[Judi Lynn]

Sept. 28, 2006, 2:49AM
Report: U.S. hospital emergency rooms overcrowded

By MATTHEW BIGG
Reuters News Service

ATLANTA - Emergency rooms at U.S. hospitals are becoming stretched as patient visits increase while the number of emergency facilities declines, a new report said.

Almost two-thirds of hospital emergency rooms in U.S. cities are sometimes crowded, according to the report released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"In recent years, growth in the use of hospital emergency medical services (ED's) has coincided with a decline in the number of EDs, leading to concerns about the capacity of EDs that continue to operate," said the report.

The annual number of visits to an emergency service rose by 18 percent in the 10 years from 1994, but the number of hospitals operating 24 hours a day decreased by 12 percent over the same time period, it said.

Between 1995 and 2003, the average caseload among operating emergency rooms rose by 78 percent, according to the report.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4220644.html

[Mnemosyne]

1. k and r n/t

[OhioChick]

2. My take is:

If a person doesn't have health insurance, they're likely to take their kids to the ER for colds, flu, etc. I expect this to get worse as more people become uninsured.

[mtnester]

3. Exactly, because at least here in Ohio, ER's cannot refuse to treat or see

you no matter what...even if you do not have health insurance. Doctor's offices can refuse to see you if you cannot pay. Urgent Care facilities demand payment up front, or they will not treat you or see you. MANY people, having faced that situation at Urgent Care facilities, simply, at that point, start having chest pains and drop to the floor, whereas the Urgent Care facility is then obligated by Ohio Law to attend to you, call an ambulance, and have you whisked away to an ER that will treat you.

Happens all day, every hour of every day here in Ohio.

[depakid]

4. The Institute of Medicine released series of reports on this

back in June.

Very disturbing stuff.

http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3718.aspx

[WePurrsevere]

5. This is only going to get worse. Sans decent insurance & income

most doctors will turn you away, emergency rooms usually can not.

Since preventive and basic health care is increasingly out of reach of many Americans they wait until it gets so bad that they end up going to an emergency room.

This has been a problem for years but the Repulican politicians keep shooting down any ideas to help that the Dems come up with. Lately it's gotten worse as there has been an outright assualt on health care for the poor, seniors and disabled.

No one should have to go without decent health care (which must include decent dental, eye & ear care and Rx's as well). This means that doctor's should be paid a realistic and fair fee in a reasonable amount of time and there needs to be an easier way for them to submit the patients information for compensation.

Just think about it... How much health care (as well as education, etc) could be/have been provided for Americans with the BILLIONS* we've spent and will spend in on this war of CHOICE?

(*according to CostOfWar.com it's currently over 300 BILLION and climbing quickly even as I type)

(edited to add detail and link to Cost Of War site)

[FormerDem06]

6. We took our son to the ER the other night.....

He couldn't stop vomiting. We had to wait for five hours in a corner with a trash can while kids who were playing video games and acting fine were seen with colds and coughs.

I was also interested to see, that we were the only Anglo and English speaking folks in the place that night out of several dozen families.

It's kind of telling who has insurance and who doesn't.