The Us of Emergency Room as a Primary Care Provider
The Use of Emergency Room as a Primary Care Provider
There are Emergency rooms all over the United States that are being utilized as primary care provider., by patients covered by private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare as well as the uninsured.(Baker, August 13, 2008) Some patients call their primary care provider and are told, they cannot be worked in for several days or weeks. The option given is to go to the Emergency room for treatment. Other reasons are people who do not have a primary care provider or insurance. Primary care providers do not want to take new patients without insurance, so their only choice is to go the emergency room for treatment. Another factor driving Emergency Room volume trends are physicians who send their patients to the Emergency Room rather than assessing them in their office first. (Goldstein, in press) I feel as though emergency rooms are being used as convenience due to the difficultly of scheduling an appointment in a timely manner or when patients are available to go to the appointment. (" Insured patients use of emergency rooms increasing.", 2003) Whereas the emergency departments are open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week with available physicians. Patients desire service on demand regardless how long the wait might be.(" Insured patients use of emergency rooms increasing.", p. 274 )
In a study that was performed by National Health Statistics (National Health statistics Reports, 2008, p. 2) it was found that within 10 year span (1996-2006) the annul number of emergency department increased from 24 percent to 32 percent. This represents a average increase of 3.2 present per year. In the same study, it was noted a average of 227 visits to United States emergency rooms every minute in 2006. In this infants to 12 months made 84.5 percent of 100 visits, 75 years and older were the second highest at 60.2 present visits out of 100 and 17.4 percent of 100 visits were uninsured. (National Health statistics
There are Emergency rooms all over the United States that are being utilized as primary care provider., by patients covered by private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare as well as the uninsured.(Baker, August 13, 2008) Some patients call their primary care provider and are told, they cannot be worked in for several days or weeks. The option given is to go to the Emergency room for treatment. Other reasons are people who do not have a primary care provider or insurance. Primary care providers do not want to take new patients without insurance, so their only choice is to go the emergency room for treatment. Another factor driving Emergency Room volume trends are physicians who send their patients to the Emergency Room rather than assessing them in their office first. (Goldstein, in press) I feel as though emergency rooms are being used as convenience due to the difficultly of scheduling an appointment in a timely manner or when patients are available to go to the appointment. (" Insured patients use of emergency rooms increasing.", 2003) Whereas the emergency departments are open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week with available physicians. Patients desire service on demand regardless how long the wait might be.(" Insured patients use of emergency rooms increasing.", p. 274 )
In a study that was performed by National Health Statistics (National Health statistics Reports, 2008, p. 2) it was found that within 10 year span (1996-2006) the annul number of emergency department increased from 24 percent to 32 percent. This represents a average increase of 3.2 present per year. In the same study, it was noted a average of 227 visits to United States emergency rooms every minute in 2006. In this infants to 12 months made 84.5 percent of 100 visits, 75 years and older were the second highest at 60.2 present visits out of 100 and 17.4 percent of 100 visits were uninsured. (National Health statistics
References: Baker, C. (2008 August). Some Surprises On Emergency Room Use. Retrieved August 30, 2008, from www.letstalkhealthcare.org Goldstein, J. (in press). Emergency Room Visits Hit Record High. . Insured patient’s use of emergency rooms increasing. (Nov 10, 2003,). Health & Medicine Week, 274. National Health statistics Reports, Number 7. (2008, August 6). Utilization of emergency departments (7). United States: CDC/NCHS . PR Web Press Release News Wire (September 26, 2006). Reducing Non-Urgent Emergency Room Use: Intervening to offset inappropriate Visits. Retrieved August 30, 2008, from www.prweb.com