ER waits dangerously long in U.S.: study

[Refugee 7]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Patients seeking urgent care in U.S. emergency rooms are waiting longer than in the 1990s, especially people with heart attacks, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

They found a quarter of heart attack victims waited 50 minutes or more before seeing a doctor in 2004. Waits for all types of emergency department visits became 36 percent longer between 1997 and 2004, the team at Harvard Medical School reported.

Especially unsettling, people who had seen a triage nurse and been designated as needing immediate attention waited 40 percent longer -- from an average of 10 minutes in 1997 to an average 14 minutes in 2004, the researchers report in the journal Health Affairs.

Heart attack patients waited eight minutes in 1997 but 20 minutes in 2004, Dr. Andrew Wilper and colleagues found.

"If a loved one has a heart attack, it doesn't matter whether he is well insured. He still has a one-in-four chance of waiting over 50 minutes, because of ED (emergency department) overcrowding, and this wait will only increase," Dr. Robert Lowe, an emergency medicine expert at Oregon Health and Science University who did not work on the study, said in a statement.

Wilper's team used U.S. Census survey and National Center for Health Statistics data for their study, which covered more than 92,000 emergency department visits.

They used other surveys to calculate that the number of emergency room visits rose from 93.4 million in 1994 to 110.2 million in 2004.

During the same time, 12 percent fewer hospitals operated emergency rooms, according to the American Hospital Association.

"EDs close because, in our current payment system, emergency patients are money-losers for hospitals," Wilper said in a statement.

Harvard's Dr. David Himmelstein, who worked on the study, also lobbies for some kind of national health care system. "One contributor to ED crowding is Americans' poor access to primary and preventive care, which could address medical issues before they become emergencies," Himmelstein said in a statement.

The American College of Emergency Physicians said the findings were not surprising.

"Emergency physicians have said for years that crowding and long wait times are hurting our patients -- insured and uninsured equally," ACEP president Dr. Linda Lawrence said in a statement.

"Ever-lengthening waits are a frightening trend because any delays in care can make the difference between life and death for some patients. The number of emergency patients is increasing while the number of hospital beds continues to drop. It is a recipe for disaster."

The study is available online at

content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.27.2.w84

[surfnburn 5]

Yep...if you've worked in a hospital, you've seen it.

"EDs close because, in our current payment system, emergency patients are money-losers for hospitals," Wilper said in a statement.

This is why there is a national system to support the clinics in our country. We keep the under-insured out of ED rooms. The state of California may cut back on insurance for these people with the current budget problems, so if they cannot afford to pay for their doctor's visits at the clinic, they'll wait until it's critical and go to the ED room. Expect longer waiting periods...

[Echosoftom 3]

It's true, many emergency departments all over this country are in a state of distress. What bothers me is that after all these years they know the problems but still nothing has been done. In fact, they've taken steps to make it worse. And I don't see it getting any better in the near future. This country needs to get their heads out of their ass and address the healthcare issues in this country. I tell people all the time, if you or a loved one has to go to your nearest ED, do not go alone and ONLY go if it's a real life threatening emergency. If there's anyway possible to get in to see your doctor or visit your neighborhood urgent care center that might be a better choice. It's very scary.

[EpiphanyDH 0]

I could tell you horror stories about what it's like in a New York City ER. It is unbelievably bad. Yes you can die waiting or be left in a corner for days because of what goes on there. I've had some very bad experiences myself as well as my friends.

Doesn't really matter whether you have money or not. A lot of the time people are alone because it just can't be helped in an emergency. It's happened to me and it is a very bad situation when it does having no one to speak up for you. And I'm sure it will happen again too.

[Starfish 0]

I don't know if this still holds true, but a friend of mine who worked as an ER nurse once told me that if it is a real emergency, arrive in an ambulance and you'll be treated more quickly.

[Patty Petty 9]

^ That's true I believe. I have had quite a few experiences with the emergency room this past year, unfortunately. The times my mother arrived in an ambulance, she was treated pronto. The couple of times we brought her there, the wait was FOREVER.