Emergency Rooms In Critical Condition
Wait Time In Hospital ERs Increases 36 Percent And Heart Attack Patients Waiting 20 Minutes
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Play CBS Video Video Longer Waits Plague ER In emergency rooms across the U.S., wait times are steadily increasing. Dr. Jon LaPook looks into an alarming trend that mirrors another flaw in the nation's ailing health care system.
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(CBS/AP)
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Interactive HealthWatch Explore health issues including AIDS, cancer and antibiotics.
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Video Archive Eye On Health CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook examines various health issues and treatments.
"My mother was seriously ill for a couple of years and I frequently had to take her to the hospital and we were often waiting three, four, five, six hours," Donna McCormick told CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.
A report found emergency room waiting times have increased 36 percent since the 90s, from an average of 22 minutes in 1997 to 30 minutes in 2004.
The wait has hit heart attack patients the worst, increasing their average wait from 8 minutes in 1997 to 20 minutes in 2004.
"Patients who are arriving at the emergency department with time sensitive illnesses may not be receiving the care that they need given these longer waits," said Dr. Andrew Wilper of the Harvard Medical School.
Why? The number of ER visits has increased, and the number of emergency rooms has decreased.
Dr. Assaad Sayah of Cambridge Health Alliance explains: "Because of hospital closures, the number of in-patient beds nationwide has shrunken. While at the same time our population is getting older, requiring more patient care and they are getting sicker."
Cambridge Health Alliance hospitals have been able to reduce waiting time 18 percent over the last six months, through steps like better scheduling of elective surgery. But making hospitals more efficient is not enough.
Improving care inside the emergency room depends on solving a major problem on the outside. With 47 million Americans lacking health insurance, the ER has been taking the place of the primary-care doctor.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 22 CommentsI usually can guess if on medicaid (if any ins.) by what they came in for.
Posted by skyk at 06:52 AM : Jan 16, 2008"
I agree with you. Particularly infants/toddlers & kids developing late Friday evening symptoms of sick ness, you have no where to go except ER. I work on weekends if I get paged. If you page doctor''s they call back and symptoms require immediate assistance they direct you to ER where you tend to wait 3,4 hours for a nurse take vitals. Why cannot doctors come to clinic to work on weekends/after hours. That can also reduce ER visits. I do not get it.
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Sorry to disappoint you, but Bush ushered through legislation that prevents most whistleblower protection.
Further, you have no assurance healthcare data is reported any more accurately here than in Cuba. If anything, HMO scandals of late demonstrate a breakdown in accountability.
Socialism and democracy are not opposed concepts, so your usage is completely off track-- unless you meant some hoary myth like, "In America, the marketplace always brings consumers what they want." We would not have 47 million Americans under- or uninsured, if the "marketplace" were as effective as Adam Smith proposed.
It seems to me that Dikc Cheney is liking his government provided health care just fine.
Why the hecck are you comparing our health system with that of Cuba''s? Compare it with the rest of Western World. No one in those countries is trying to get over hear because they think we have it better with health care. I remember a fellow from Germany and I asked him why he didn''t try becoming a US citizen. He didn''t want to risk losing health care. He could always return to Germany if he got sick. Here, he would have to hope that his employment would provide it for him.
You have no intention of dropping the resolution or dropping the 30 pounds?:)
If you are talking about Canada, you would be wrong.
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You miss the point entirely. The health system fostered by the private sector (HMOs) is quite content with the ER crisis as you describe it.
"Let the poor rot, and their children with them," they say. "All we want is people wealthy enough to afford our nifty medical policies. The rest of America, be damned..."
The critics and biggest detractors of a national healthcare system include in their front ranks (1) insurance companies (2) HMOs (predictably) and even the medical associations.
What has their indifference wrought? The country still has no comprehensive healthcare system we can afford. The HMO circus Bush created has left Americans paying 2.5 times more for their health care per capita than what even "socialist" EU systems pay. And America is dead last of industrialized nations in infant mortality-- after even Cuba.
To parallel: I may as well teach fitness despite currently being 30 pounds overweight (a new year''s resolution I have no intention of dropping...)
Humans need to get a clue... they aren''t wanted in the Bush economy. Only money need apply.
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