Hey America. O is in the hizzie fo shizzle. All health care to be free soon. Along with free health care will come the prohibition of medical errors, so we have that going for us... which is nice.
*And thanks to an anonymous poster for this, a rare gem of truth in an otherwise completely sold-out media.
My good friend has that whole thing memorized. In college I used to make him repeat it to me when I was drunk. Oh the memories.
ReplyDelete"Austin ER's got 2,678 visits from 9 people over 6 years"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/01/0401er.html
not aprils fool news
ReplyDelete(cost of $3 million)
9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits in Texas
Wed Apr 1, 9:19 pm ET
AUSTIN, Texas – Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.
"What we're really trying to do is find out who's using our emergency rooms ... and find solutions," said Ann Kitchen, executive director of the group, which presented the report last week to the Travis County Healthcare District board.
The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said.
Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless. Five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50, the report said, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.
"It's a pretty significant issue," said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, chief of the emergency department at University Medical Center at Brackenridge, which has the busiest ERs in the area.
Solutions include referring some frequent users to mental health programs or primary care doctors for future care, Ziebell said.
"They have a variety of complaints," he said. With mental illness, "a lot of anxiety manifests as chest pain."
Pshaw, Octomom has them all beat.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone really thought about this?? 2.7 MILLION dollars for 9 people!! They achieved what none of us thought might be possible, 300 ER visits per person over 6 years. A lesser patient might have accepted less. But not these high-aiming shooters! (please liberals, don't take offense to the gun reference) It takes a professional patient of the highest caliber to dedicate himself/herself to the unrewarding task of filling the ER's beds. I am truly in awe of your dedication to your profession. Way to go, guys!! Job well done.
ReplyDeleteThis story exemplifies one of the many reasons I quit Emergency Medicine. That we, as highly trained medical professionals, have to put up with this kind of nonsense is unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteScrew EMTALA! I guarantee 99% of these visits were non-emergent B.S. or malingering, and these people should have been turned away at the door. Healthcare reform will not fix this. This is a deep-seated cultural problem that does not have an easy fix.
Oh well, I spent my six years trying to fight against the system and do good medicine. I couldn't take it anymore. Now I only take care of people who have a reason to be in the hospital; either they're having surgery or they're sick enough to be in the ICU.
Props to the rest of you guys and gals out there still trying to fight the battle and take care of people with real emergencies in a broken system.