Emergency Care Waits on Rise, Study Says »
Posted by: dexlovex2 7 months, 2 weeks agoEven those experiencing a heart attack are not assured speedy treatment, with half waiting 20 minutes or more to be examined in 2004, up from eight minutes in 1997, the study found. The same was true for those with other serious health problems.
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bobo-in-texas7 months, 2 weeks ago
You don't suppose that there is any connection between the wait time and the number of illegal err.. undocumented patients?
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nostalgia7 months, 2 weeks ago
"the rising number of patients coming for non-urgent health problems, and the closure of some hospitals (and their emergency rooms)"
When the Feds REQUIRE you to treat everyone even if it is not an emergency this is what you get
ERs closing because they are losing money. How many hosptals along the Mexican border and LA have closed over the years. It is spreading across the country.
Unless Washington wakes up and does something it is going to become a crisis situation across the entire nation
As the politicians turn a blind eye to the problems with illegal immigration, US citizens will continue to bear the burden in a myriad of ways.
It is not difficult to draw a straight line between 2 points. Someone needs to send Congress several cases of rulers!
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DanmLiberals7 months, 2 weeks ago
When we have half of Mexico using our hospitals for free, it all adds up to shotty care and a huge tax burden. kind of feels like a waste of tax money when your own citizens can't get the care that some illegal mexicans get. Horrible situation we are in.
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Candida7 months, 2 weeks ago
nostalgia: "ERs closing because they are losing money."
You are absolutely right. When the government solves the problem of unaffordable healthcare by forcing ER units to provide care for everybody, then this is the result. As the article points out:
"We need to fix the health-care system," Steinberg said. "We need to ensure that every American has health coverage so that the emergency department isn't their only point of access to care."
You are also right that illegal immigration is a problem, but do you ever wonder why politicians turn a blind eye to it? They turn a blind eye because illegal immigrants provide cheap labor, almost slave labor in many places. You would have to pay a lot more for your tomatoes without them.
It's always easier to find a scapegoat than to face the real underlying problem and fix it. There are a lot more than two points to connect here.
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mesodude7 months, 2 weeks ago
Are they a possible factor? Sure. But just because some right wing shout radio host told you that illegal immigrants are the root cause of everything from the fall of mankind to ingrown toenails doesn't mean you should abandon all logic and reason and deny the numerous and complex variables (many of which the article mentions) involved. It seems to me that a more pressing concern is that 45 million US *citizens* lack health insurance.
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DanmLiberals7 months, 2 weeks ago
Which talk shows do I listen too? I dont recall ever listening too one.
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saintetienne7 months, 2 weeks ago
mesodud,
As long as you continue to dole it out, they will come and take advantage.
CUT IT OUT. STOP giving away free benefits, and they will find their own solutions. This country has become one big ENABLER to every sad-ass, lazy "citizen" that comes along with their hand out. You ought to understand the term ENABLER, right, mesodud? Isn't that what Oprah or Doctor Phil or some other idiot talks about all the time?
- ILLEGALS are rewarded for doing NOTHING.
- I'M penalized for WORKING and PAYING TAXES.
What's wrong with this picture?
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NelsonR7 months, 2 weeks ago
BoBo you hit it on the nail. Upon going to the Emergency room one evening the room was filled with illegals, no insurance, I had insurance but 2 hours later I finally got in. Send them home today, I'm sick of hospitals closing and my tax dollars subsidizing these illegals.
Thank god I don't live where illegal gangs dominate and terrorize their neighborhoods. Target practice would ensue.
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CaptainLucid7 months, 2 weeks ago
I took an EMT class and part of the class was a 4 hour shift in an ER. I chose a Friday night because I wanted to see the action. Somehow they were in a remarkable lull when I arrived. They admitted some latina who had a chronic cough for a week. Why didn't she go to the local clinic? My guess is they expect to get paid. Later though the action started heating up. They brought in and old fogey who fell down in his front yard. He didn't know where he was. They ran a bunch of tests including an MRI on him to figure out why he fell down. I pointed out to the DR. that he had an empty pint of some cheap vodka sticking out of his pocket. They had to play cover their ass in case a lawsuit happened. The free ER is not a good solution.
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mesodude7 months, 2 weeks ago
"Upon going to the Emergency room one evening the room was filled with illegals, no insurance, I had insurance but 2 hours later I finally got in. Send them home today, I'm sick of hospitals closing and my tax dollars subsidizing these illegals."
How do you know that they were all here illegally and lacked health insurance?
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palamaComment removed: User banned.
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bill29367 months, 2 weeks ago
My wife used to work a a ER nurse. Not only are the illegals a problem, but those on Medicad are also. She has seen them come into the emergancy room for nonemergancies because it was free. Just wait until the socialized medicine people take over, then even more going to emergency room because it is free.
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wtagg7 months, 2 weeks ago
"Just wait until the socialized medicine people take over, then even more going to emergency room because it is free."
I'm not sure this makes sense. Conceptually, wouldn't socialized medicine put the people back into the doctor's office because it would be free there also? Free, as in covered. Someone somewhere is paying.
Ironically, you are already part of many socialized programs and businesses. Insurance is built upon socialized principles, so whenever you use it, whether it is a car accident, a doctor's visit, life insurance benefit, etc... it is all part of a socialized principle or business.
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bill29367 months, 2 weeks ago
Doctor's offices aren't open 24/7 like emergency rooms. Now if someone with free medical gets a booboo will they wait for the doctors office to open or go to the emergency room. I have insurance, because of the copay structure, it determines a lot on the need for ER use. If I go to the ER that is $200, if I go to an a medical clinic that is open from 7am to 9pm it $20. So is the need worth $200 for the ER or $20 and wait for the morning. That is the difference. My wife as an ER Nurse had more than one case that was fixed by nothing more that a bandaid ($1 a box at the drug store) for Medicaid patients.
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BB647 months, 2 weeks ago
Bill,
In Milwaukee it's much worse. Those on Medicaid, not the seniors on Medicare, the welfare folks, Medicaid are a huge problem for the ER folks. Rather than simply driving to their doctors office or calling a cab, when they need to see a doctor they dial 911 and we end up paying the bill.
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mesodude7 months, 2 weeks ago
"Not only are the illegals a problem, but those on Medicad are also. She has seen them come into the emergancy room for nonemergancies because it was free."
--Huh? Have you ever been to an emergency room? It's not exactly like getting in line at the DMV. Patients are treated in the order of the severity of their problem so those with the less threatening health concerns can sit around for many hours as people who come in after they do are wheeled to the head of the line. This is not something people casually does just to save a few bucks. In any event, it's not the epidemic some here would suggest.
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rdy2rck7 months, 2 weeks ago
All good comments. But the statistics don't surprise me. Besides patients going there that don't belong, Greed is a big factor also. The monopolies of Insurance companies and drug companies "negotiate" what they will pay for a service at ridiculously low prices for the Hospitals not only cut staff to dangerous levels but also cuts the quality of the products the hospital uses.
And it makes me sick to see an Insurance company announcing 300% NET profits year after year at our expense. I don't know the answer honestly, but believe that history has shown socialism doesn't work. But it's also obvious out of control capitalism isn't working either
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GrainOfSand7 months, 2 weeks ago
My elderly mother waited hours in the hallway, not even in a sickbay with a curtain, for three hours. At least she wasn't in the waiting room. She was having trouble with he balance and couldn't hardly walk. The place was packed with people. It wasn't even a Friday night, or the weekend. It was a weekday, I remember.
Just proved to me that day how screwed up and misdirected our healthcare system is.
In contrast, I only waited--at the most--15 minutes before I had to have a colonoscopy though!
Go figure.
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BB647 months, 2 weeks ago
After leaving the Navy I went for my MBA. While working a part-time job I was stabbed with a screwdriver by an illegal alien. I disarmed and kicked the crap out of him. You think your mom having to wait is bad. I sat in the hospital waiting room with a screw driver in my upper shoulder while they took care of the little dirt bag first. BTW- he was given probation and never deported.
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TweekerchickQC7 months, 2 weeks ago
Ive never had to wait. Because whenever I go to a hospital, its because of my asthma. Not being able to breath pushes you to the front of the line.
Sometimes it makes me feel bad though. I'm so used to my asthma that I forget that not breathing is in fact a big deal and I always think "They should see that one person before me!"
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TweekerchickQC7 months, 2 weeks ago
Oh I know! Its almost like you get used to it, if that makes any sense.
Its like Oh, im having trouble breathing again. Like "Oh, I stubbed my toe. Crap."
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Sock_Puppet7 months, 2 weeks ago
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happened in 2000, aside from Y2K?
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nikkibabe7 months, 2 weeks ago
May be many yankees don't know that 75% of ER x-rays are transmitted to Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, India or the Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India for review, diagnostics and relay of recommenda...
Welcome to the present and stay tuned for video conferencing with a physician in India on your next visit to an ER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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aceofspades17 months, 2 weeks ago
When's the last time your doctor made a house call?
What do you do if you get sick when his office is closed?
Did anyone notice - we have an aging population,with the ills of advancing years?
Did you know that most ERs charge obscene fees if you don't have insurance ?
PUT the blame where it belongs - the ER has become our family doctors' office because there are very few of them left . Most M.D.s are specialists who will see about that injury in a month from Sunday
Fix the medical delivery system & put the blame where it belongs - you can turn away every illegal & you'll still be in the ER for hours
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joeblowe7 months, 2 weeks ago
The article doesn't really say much about WHY this is happening, but in addition to the explanations noted, I would add: HMOs. The strong trend toward HMO "care" is driving potential doctors into other professions. The HMOs, like practically everything else has it's pluses and minuses, but one thing it DOES is negotiate doctor pay down to a point where -I- am probably making more on an hourly basis than some of them. If there were MORE doctors available, care would be coming more quickly, I suspect.
The other thing I notice is that there seems to be more sluggishness just GETTING to the point where they will LET a doctor see you. FIRST, you have to get by the receptionist, THEN the person who takes billing information (if any), THEN a nurse, THEN maybe a doctor. And to me, it doesn't seem like any of them are in a mood to get it done QUICKLY. It's hard to get good help. In ANY profession.
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jaern7 months, 2 weeks ago
Gee, could that be because of all those morons with a 3-day "sinus infection" that just have to have antibiotics are bogging down emergency services?
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VMan7 months, 2 weeks ago
This is the most intelligent post that I've seen here. People, please get over your "socialized medicine" phobia. There are other countries that efficiently take care of the health problems of their populations better than we currently do. Our country is so good at doing so many things. How then could it be so hard to believe that we could make a single-payer universal health coverage system work? American ingenuity seems to have made lots of corporations successful, including insurance and drug companies, why can't we the people take care of our own?
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rdy2rck7 months, 2 weeks ago
Also, in many cases nurses are REQUIRED to work hours so long putting there ability to concentrate at stake thus more mistakes.
Plus, I can't post a website but I did read where nursing and doctor schools are showing a decline in enrollment because they know what they're getting into and the shortage continues.
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CaptainLucid7 months, 2 weeks ago
"Plus, I can't post a website but I did read where nursing and doctor schools are showing a decline in enrollment because they know what they're getting into and the shortage continues."
I wish you could post a website because I think you are clueless about this. I am not sure about the med schools but as far as the nursing schools you maybe technically correct but absolutely wrong about the reason. If there is a lack of enrollment in nursing schools it is entirely because there are less spots to enroll in. I had a friend in SoCal and she was on the one year wait list for nursing school. I live in the SF area now and the schools here have at least one year waiting lists. Chimp and his friends are shortchanging education again and that is why nurses have to work such long hours. There is a shortage of nurses so the solution is educate more of them. Dumbass says cut education.
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Candida7 months, 2 weeks ago
Of course they are not treated equally. The ones who have the most money, best insurance, etc. get the best treatment. That's how the system is set up, and it seems to me that a lot of people like it that way.
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dexlovex2
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