I can see low priority being a 4 hour wait but it should not be a 8 hour wait or more. And ER with one or two doctors and 20 to 60 people is disaster ready to happen.
If there was a train wreck or a multiple vehicle accidents, storm like a tornado, mall shooting so on many people will die.
Also keep in mind a lot of problem with long ER wait times today is Doctor’s hate working in ER. In my city there are close to 100 medical walk in clinics and only two hospitals
And yes you can wait hour or two at a medical walk in clinic for cold, broken bones, burns, cuts, dog bites, stitches so on!!!
Americans believe in emergency you should have it ASAP and in non emergency same day or next day or pay to get in front of line. Not a soviet union style almost a month or more for scan.
And how many had life-threatening conditions versus how many could be treated faster at a Doc in a Box or if they just called their PCP? The Emergency Room is called that for a reason, but too many people use it for minor shit.
What country do you live in? I don’t think you said?
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How can 90’s have 5 to 10 people and now 40 to 60 people in the ER!!
The Average ER Wait Time in US all 50 state. Best and wost states to be in.
Why was it in past they had hospital or every 50,000 people or 100,000 people and now hospital for every 300,000 people.
When mega hospital came about this problem started. If the population and call load goes up why do we still have the same number of doctors working in the ER.
Even if 80% of those people had very low Emergency.
If half those 20 to 60 people are kids with uncomplicated ear infections or colds or the like they shouldn’t be there at all. None of that is an emergency but due to our jacked-up health “system” too many people still lack basic access to care, so it’s the ER or nothing. They’re going to wait until everyone else with real emergencies are seen first.
I’m sorry - are you under the impression that ER’s are first come, first served?
Who gets seen when in an ER all depends on NEED, not when the person arrives or how long the person has been sitting there. On a busy day a relatively minor injury will be sitting a long time.
If there’s a “mass casualty incident” like a train wreck or whatever then, again, people will be seen according to need. Which means Mr. Ear Infection may be waiting even longer.
Doesn’t even have to be a mass casualty incident - when I sprained my knee my turn finally came around only to be pre-empted by a young kid with half his face covered and pouring down with blood. Guess what - he got seen first, even though he had’’ just arrived and I’d been waiting a couple hours. Blood loss trumps a sprain.
Waits are dependent on actual medical needs, not what you think they should be.
Well, maybe the Americans have f’ed up beliefs not only about their own medical system but also how a medical system should be. A lot of them are spoiled, entitled brats.
Personally, I’d rather have a system based on actual need and medical criteria and priorities rather than who can outbid anyone else for the front of the line.
What day of the week and what time of day were you there? 2 pm Tuesday on a regular day is going to be a lot less busy than 9 pm on Friday or 11 pm on St. Patrick’s Day.
One reason is that a lot of stuff that used to be done in a hospital setting is now done as outpatient treatment. Also, people used to spend a LOT more time recovering in the hospital. We now know that’s not necessary in many cases, and in some ways it’s better to be home so long as it won’t complicate a case. So we don’t need as many beds per unit of population.
If you have a “low emergency” (what is that?) then you can probably wait your turn.
If you’re suddenly jumped to the front of line you’re probably near death. Me, I’d rather have something that allows waiting.
no we have more people and a bigger city and higher call load but same number of doctors we had in the 90’s. It is a disgrace a big city population of 600,000 people have two hospitals yet old very old cities population of 600,000 have 7 hospitals or more.
It is extremely unacceptable and unacceptable a small town or small city has ER with one or two doctors and yet a big city ER with one or two doctors.
It is not acceptable a city of 300,000 people a ER has only one or two doctors.
There should be doctor at the very least for every 100,000 people!!!
It cheaper for government to build these mega hospitals than in past building these smaller hospitals for every 50,000 or 100,000 people!! But now the ER are busting open with this model. Well it is like a assembling line not health care provider.
The government loves these mega hospitals it is cheaper for them. Those 20 to 60 people in ER are unheard of in those hospitals models of past.
Well the mega hospitals support the model of 20 to 60 people in ER.
Um… you know, it would be really helpful if you told us WHICH city you’re talking about…
First of all, is it one or two doctors a shift, or one or two doctors total? That is not at all clear from your posts.
Second, even if there are only two doctors on duty at a time, there will be other medical personnel AND additional doctors on call who can come to the ER from the rest of the “mega-hospital” promptly.
It doesn’t make sense to pay a neurosugeon to sit in an ER for hours on end with no neurosurgery to do. Instead, you have emergency specialists on duty who will call in such other specialists as needed.
Were you completely unaware of this system?
Look at the chart on the average ER wait times in US are under 5 hours or 300 minutes = 5 hours!!!
Most of ER wait times in US are 4 hours. Some places a bit more and some bit less.
60= one hour
120= 2 hours
180= 3 hours.
240= 4 hours
300= 5 hours
360= 6 hours
I have no problem poor people waiting a month or two for hip or knee surgery or month for scan. I do have problem with some one that wants to pay in cash or pay extra health insurance for faster!!
If you want it ASAP you should have right to pay in cash or get more costly health insurance plan.
This sounds like a local problem.
In Philadelphia, we have four medical schools (used to be five, two merged) whose graduates often want to stay in the area. There is a lot of competition between hospitals to attract specialty care patients. It’s common that you can get appointments with specialists on the Philadelphia Magazine docs docs go to lists within a month, and to a faculty member of the hospital’s choice right away. But the supply of primary care physicians isn’t so good. This is one reason why we travel to Wilmington Delaware for primary care while getting almost all specialty care quite nearby.
See:
You do realize a train wreck or a multiple vehicle accidents, storm like a tornado, mall shooting would have a lot of people coming in priority one and two.
Than priority 3 and 4 like burns, cuts, dog bites, stitches, colds, walking and twisted my ankle and minor swollen feet so on.
If doctors are struggling with priority one and two cases in ER under normal workload this would really tip it over.
Want to maybe link to the article, not just the chart? Because your chart is from 2009. Here is data on emergency room wait times now.
The average wait time - until the patient sees a doctor - for the US as a whole is 24 minutes. That’s right, 1/3 of an hour, not 4 or 6.
The time before a patient is sent home or admitted is longer, of course, but that’s not wait time. So you have a bit of a problem with your data.
BTW, in the US governments don’t usually build hospitals.
Also btw, on my way home I pass an electronic billboard with an ad for an emergency room that gives the current wait times. It is usually about 8 minutes. Now, they maybe don’t display if the times are long, but they also give a number where you can get a text of the current wait time, so that wouldn’t always help.
Twenty years ago China wasn’t a leader in renewable energy, now they are the world’s biggest investor and their manufacturing is driving down global prices for renewable supplies.
China’s over 60 population is going to grow from about 200 million now to about 340 million in 230 and 430 million in 2050. China is going to have a massive incentive to find ways to provide those hundreds of millions with cheap, efficient health care. A big part of the stability of the Chinese government is keeping people happy, if they start telling 400 million people to die off miserably when the people know an alternative exists (which wasn’t the case before China became richer) there is going to be rebellion.
So China has the motive, means and competence to find ways to make cheap and efficient health care advances. India too (a physician in India innovated a way to do coronary bypass surgery for $1600 for example).
There is a massive incentive to create affordable health care, and I think China & India will lead. Western nations may do a lot of innovation in new health advances, but middle income nations will innovate ways to make existing health care cheaper.
Those are averages.
For every person whisked immediately into the back room due to being near death someone else is sitting out in the waiting room longer than average. If average wait time is 4 hours then, in order to balance out those seen immediately, some folks are going to be waiting a lot longer than 4 hours.
If you show up with a cold you might well wait 12 hours to be seen at some times and in some places. That’s because real emergencies are seen first.
Um… why?
OK, sure, if there are enough resources allow people to pay more to jump the line, at least for non-emergency cases, but if resources are limited why should they go to the highest bidder rather than the neediest?
Should we choose who gets organ transplants based on who can wave the most money around rather than on who actually needs them?
Medical resources and expertise are not unlimited. When they are limited, they should be assigned by need, not by wealth.
Actually, tornadoes have remarkably low numbers of deaths and injuries considering how violent they are.
The biggest mass casualty events are going to be things like commercial airline crashes, high speed train wrecks, or mass fire events like a nightclub fire. Not that mall shootings and multiple vehicle accidents aren’t serious or even deadly, but the typical instances are not going to overload an ER in a large urban area.
Stitches already in, colds, twisted ankles, and minor swollen feet shouldn’t be in the ER in the first place. I frankly don’t give a damn if those people wait 8 or 12 hours - there are better places to get care for those things.
Why do you assume the doctors are “struggling”? Why should they be in any hurry to deal with a common cold?