Thread: Emergency Rooms in America: A Deadly Prognosis

FOXNEWS.COM HOME > HEALTH

Emergency Rooms in America: A Deadly Prognosis
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

By Donald Snyder

In a crowded Arizona emergency room, a 10-year old boy struggles to breathe. He is having an asthma attack.

Within 15 minutes, he is dead.

Had he not been turned away from two children’s hospitals closer to his home, he might be alive.

However, those ERs were too full to take the boy.

“The boy might be alive today if he was treated at one of the children’s hospitals instead of the ambulance being diverted to my crowded emergency department 20 to 30 minutes away,â€

What a slanted story. They forgot to mention the cause........20 - 35 million ILLEGAL ALIENS forcing themselves on the hospitals.

Last week I was awaiting for lab work and an x-ray. A young woman with a new born was attempting to register--she spoke almost no English and had no ID. 45 minutes later she was still sitting at the registration desk making calls for her husband (?) to bring in his ID. In the meantime, the waiting line was getting longer and longer despite the other two registration desks. She and the registrations clerk chatted in Spanish between the calls. She should have gone to a pay phone and made her numerous calls rather than make everyone else late.

Sat. I went to the pharmacy. Two scuzzy looking women with what I call jail house tattoos were at the counter. One got 15 bottles of medicine, paid the clerk $22.00 and got change back. The next lady in line was an obvious senior citizen. She had one bottle of medication which with co-pay cost $68.00. She told the clerk she couldn't afford her medication and left the pharmacy without her medication.

[quote="MyAmerica"]

— Americans are using emergency rooms more than ever in today’s society.

— Between 1994 and 2004, there was a 20 percent increase in the demand for emergency care, according to the CDC, which is most likely due to an increase in the nations’ uninsured and growing elderly population.

During those years, 9 percent of the nation’s ERs closed, having lost money from inadequate reimbursement, according to the CDC.

Bellevue Hospital Center, the nation’s oldest public hospital, treats many of New York City’s disenfranchised residents. Few of these patients can afford private doctors.

One cause of emergency department gridlock is the practice known as “boarding.â€

Originally Posted by CitizenJustice

What a slanted story. They forgot to mention the cause........20 - 35 million ILLEGAL ALIENS forcing themselves on the hospitals.

Absolutely!!! Just what I was thinking. They totally left out the causitive factor of the problem...the million of illegl aliens using hospital emergency rooms as their personal physicians.

— Americans are using emergency rooms more than ever in today’s society. In 2005, 115 million Americans went to the ER, up five million from the year before, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

I doubt these are "Americans". Maybe they have "American" id's, but they are NOT Americans.

I've heard so many stories about illegal aliens swamping emergency rooms with their entire famalies in tow. They use it like its a doctors office.

ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE THE PROBLEM!

Sloppy, sloppy reporting. No mention of illegal aliens and using the term "Americans" where the term "people, the majority of which are in the country illegally" should have been used.

In LA, six ERs shut down in just eighteen months between 2003 and 2004.

Hospitals and ERs across the country are subsidizing illegals, even as these same illegals are collectively sending billions of dollars home from the U..S. in remittances.