Crisis Seen in Nation's ER Care

WaPo Emergency medical care in the United States is on the verge of collapse, with the nation's declining number of emergency rooms dangerously overcrowded and often unable to provide the expertise needed to treat seriously ill people in a safe and efficient manner.

The solution is to have a clinic next to the ER, and triage the patients, sending those that are coming just because they don't have a Primary Care Physician over to the clinic. Also check IDs and if you find illegal aliens go ahead and treat them, if the law requires it, but call ICE and have someone ready to pick them up when they are treated. And if ICE refuses to send anyone, call the local paper and ask them to print that in the next issue.

OTB blogged While there are many reasons for these problems, the main one seems to be that the poor and uninsured often rely on ER care for ailments that would send the rest of us to a primary care physician. It’s also the case that ER/trauma care is at the high end of the spectrum for susceptability to malpractice suits and therefore their insurance costs are astronomical. Combined with the fact that a substantial portion of their patients can’t or won’t pay, this is problematic.