They should be reserved for emergencies.
This isn't a good trend:
A growing number of Baltimore residents are being treated in hospitals for illnesses that could be prevented with routine medical care, a new study has found. The health commissioner says the data show "a fundamental failure" of the city's health system.I could see how the psychology of an Emergency Room staff could shift when there is a high volume of bodies in the room that are not true emergencies.
City residents are being hospitalized or treated in emergency rooms for such conditions as asthma and high blood pressure at rates that are roughly twice those in surrounding counties and statewide, according to the Rand Corp. study.
This also puts extra honus on the staff to figure out which people are real emergencies, which was previously left to the discretion of the people seeking help.
On all kinds of levels, it seems like this would be problematic.
2 comments:
Interesting, but I think one factor might be that many of these people who have illnesses that could have been prevented by routine checkups are people who don't have health insurance. Therefore, they wait until it gets really bad before they do anything, and they end up in the ER room.
What do you think?
thanks for comment.
ya, the preventative piece is huge. and i think you're right that a lot of people probably don't do a good job of visiting their Primary Care Physicians.
On a larger level, I think we live in a society that is driven by crisis and politicians and industry and the rest of society tend to not pay attention til things get really crash (i.e. mortgage crisis).
I hope that as the economy gets tighter people start looking for preventative measures to stay well. The alternative is just not sustainable.
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