Read this entire article. There is absolutely no mention of how 12 million illegal Aliens have contributed to this horrific problem. See folks when you are an illegal alien, obtaining insurance gives you a connection to the MAN, so insurance is rarely obtained.

So they visit ER's with municiple connections and get free care at your expense. If they don't pay the bill, the hospital has no teeth to get their money from these drifters. How does the ER recoupe the costs? By jacking up your cost and your insurance companies costs.

So blame them, this is obviously a not forgotten but rarely mentioned by product of these Illegals.

I also like the reccomendations, first get the governement involved...please, they'll screw it up worse than ever. How about agressive deportation of anyone with illegal status in this country!

Emergency medical care listed in critical condition  

There were almost 114 million emergency room visits in 2003, up from 90 million a decade earlier. During the same time, the total number of U.S. hospitals decreased by 703, and the number of ERs by 425.
 
 EMERGENCY CARE

Among the Institute of Medicine's recommendations:

• Establish a lead federal agency for emergency care.

• End emergency room diversions of ambulances.

• Fund improvements in emergency pediatric care.

• Regulate medical performance of air ambulances in each state.

• Create evidence-based indicators of EMS performance.

• Promote accountability for emergency care systems.

• Increase funding for EMS-related disaster preparedness.

Read the full report at national-academies.org





By Robert Davis, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The nation's emergency medical system — from the 911 centers that take phone calls for help to the emergency rooms that have become primary treatment centers for millions of Americans — is in a dangerous state of crisis, says a new series of landmark reports.
The Institute of Medicine on Wednesday released the Future of Emergency Care reports, which were prepared by a 40-member board after a two-year investigation. The IOM advises the government on science, medical and health issues.

The reports warn that the U.S. lifesaving system is not only failing to handle daily emergencies but also could break down in the face of national disasters, including hurricanes, disease outbreaks or terrorist attacks.

"We are not prepared," says Brent Eastman, a board member and chief medical officer at Scripps Health in San Diego. "We struggle to survive day-to-day."

Nels Sanddal, board member and president of the Critical Illness and Trauma Foundation in Bozeman, Mont., agrees. "To ramp up" to treat high numbers of patients, he says, "we have to have backbone."

The reports say that, on average, in every minute of every day an ambulance carrying a patient is turned away from a hospital on "diversion," when an emergency room says it's too full to take more patients.

That must end, says Arthur Kellermann, director of the Center for Injury Control at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. "We cannot let the most time-sensitive portal in the hospital get gridlocked."

The IOM reports detail how hundreds of thousands of lives are affected every year by EMS deficiencies that are not obvious. "What the public perceives and what is real, in many cases, there is a disconnect," says Gail Warden, president emeritus of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, who chaired the panel. "In most communities, there is a crisis under the surface."

Many emergency rooms barely can handle their daily patient loads, children don't always get good care, and the quality of rescue services is erratic, the reports say.

And geography determines survival.

"There is a wide disparity," says Shirley Gamble, a United Way board member in Austin. She cited a 2003 USA TODAY probe that found a 10-fold difference between major cities in cardiac arrest survival rates.

The reports say that by following the lead of those cities that save more lives, entire regions can raise the quality of their care.

Improvements to emergency medical services, Eastman says, "should be built on islands of excellence that exist today."

Posted 6/14/2006 12:55 PM ET  

I saw this too...makes you think how much fun the bird flu is gonna be.  

Well, I can tell you that illegals have not contributed to this problem nearly as much as dead beat Americans have.  Why pay for health insurance when your local ER will treat you for free!

Do you know how many people will call an ambulance because they need a ride to a place near the hospital?    

Yep, you don't know how many people I have had working for me that tell me that they won't be in to work tomorrow because they have to go to the doctor.  That means they will sit all day in the emergency room to get free med care.  To them this is cheaper than working all day and paying 35 bucks for an office visit.  If you are making 8 bucks an hour then you are ahead by working, but you couldn't tell them this.

The reports say that, on average, in every minute of every day an ambulance carrying a patient is turned away from a hospital on "diversion," when an emergency room says it's too full to take more patients.

maybe if welfare and medicaid didn't pay for ER visits for non emergencies they'd be less full

i work in a hospital, relatively small scale, and i can tell you on some days, especially in the summer, there can be upto a 7 hour wait....it gets insane [and foul smelling].  Thank God those days are few and far between, but it seriously is like SHTF...one time we had a bomb threat, so of course local and state po show up with swat and bomb squad, fbi comes and during the confusion an inmate that was being seen in the ER snuck off and the swat team ended up finding her trying to break a door that automatically locks when the hospital goes on lockdown mode...oh the stories that never reach the news.

Hell, try Cook Co.

24-36 hr waits to be seen.   2 and 3 day stays in the ER Bays before a bed became available.   Treating patients in the hallways.    And that is in the "new" hospital!

AFARR

Quoted: Hell, try Cook Co. 24-36 hr waits to be seen.   2 and 3 day stays in the ER Bays before a bed became available.   Treating patients in the hallways.    And that is in the "new" hospital! AFARR

I'll remember to bring a tent and mre's if I ever have to go to that one.

Quoted: Hell, try Cook Co. 24-36 hr waits to be seen.   2 and 3 day stays in the ER Bays before a bed became available.   Treating patients in the hallways.    And that is in the "new" hospital! AFARR

Sweet home Chicago!!! I miss that place!!

I am at work right now at a children’s hospital.  It is 11:30 at night.  Let me pull up the census for the ER and see what “Emergencies” we are currently having with anyone that might have a shall we say non English speaking last name.

Cough
Cough
Routine lab draw
Ear pain
Cough
Fever
Sore leg
Cough

Not saying that these kids don’t need to be seen, just saying that they could be seen in a clinic or by a GP.  Not in a $1,500 a pop ER.

Quoted: Not saying that these kids don’t need to be seen, just saying that they could be seen in a clinic or by a GP.  Not in a $1,500 a pop ER.

exactly

The way to fix the ER problem almost overnight is to institute a $25 copay before you can be seen.  I bet the ER visits will drop to only real emergency cases.

To a certain degree, hospitals allow this because the ER is a source of admissions and money for the hospital.

ER visits are up by 24 million from ten years ago....

We have roughly 20 million illegal aliens in this country...

Hmmmm...maybe there's a connection.


NAHHHHHHH!