More data for the "please don't immediately recommend the ER" cause

[feckalyn.livejournal.com]

Friendly mod post here y'all~

Some of you know about my crusade to try to limit the use of our dwindling Emergency Rooms to true emergencies only. Here's my last post on the matter.

Anyway, the CDC released a report on the status of Emergency Department use in the US this week. And the news isn't great.

"A record 114 million Americans visited a hospital emergency room in 2003, despite a steady decline in the number of E.R. facilities available nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report issued Thursday.

While E.R. visits shot up 26 percent over the decade from 1993 to 2003, the number of emergency department facilities fell 14 percent over that span."

See more in the CDC's report.

So when you see fellow vp-ers asking for medical advice, please refer them to a local ask-a-nurse line (usually available though community hospitals) or their personal medical provider rather than the ER. I know I want to have access to ER care when I'm having a medical emergency and I'm sure you do too, but if we keep misusing them they aren't going to be there when we need them!

Comments

Re: Yes!

[lizs18.livejournal.com]

What I would advocate for, is that people try their best to utilize local health clinics and health departments to meet their needs and that if those resources aren't available (which they aren't in many cities and counties) that they contact their elected officials and let them know that they would like those resources to be available. I see the emergency room issue as a symptom of the disease, and I hesitate to caution people against using what might be their only available access to medical care. I think that people should receive medical care, and should use the best resources available, and I realize for some, emergency care is the only resource available. The benefit to them would be that they receive necessary care.

Lack of access to necessities have few benefits to society in my opinion. The only benefit that people using emergency services as a clinic when one isn't available to them, might be that they get upset about the lack of access to medical care and begin, or continue agitating to change that.

VP might not be the best place to campaign for health care access for all, but I doubt people would be offended by providing a link to other organizations, or providing information about grass-roots efforts.

Re: Yes!

[feckalyn.livejournal.com]

I see what you mean about the ER situation being a symptom of the bigger problem and I agree, but I don't personally feel that telling people on an internet forum to use them indiscriminately is the answer. (Which does happen here quite frequently..."oh, you think maybe got Pin Worms? Run, don't walk to the nearest ER!!!!!!!!11!!")

What about when all the ERs are closed because they can no longer afford to run because the 43+ million people who are uninsured (and probably twice that who are underinsured) in this country used them for non-emergent situations because someone on vaginapagina (or elsewhere) told them that they should? Or if they close their doors to all but the well insured? Do you think that's going to make the situation better? Now not only are people who don't have insurance not receiving health care, they won't have access to emergency care in case they have a true emergency, and neither will most other people.

And, while I agree that nobody would likely be offended, vp is not a grassroots organizing community for universal health care. And nor are most of our members medical professionals, so recommending that people who post here go to the ER (in the vast majority of circumstances) is completely innapropriate.