emergency rooms

> Despite its potential, clinic operator Medcor isn't hot after the walk-in retail clinic business. Here's why. Article

> How one hospital is dealing with cases of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Letter

> Interested in leaving medicine for a big, fat consulting paycheck? You, …

This is the story of one more healthcare system's struggle to provide humane, cost-efficient care to an underserved population, in this case illegal immigrants. Like other uninsured patients, Delaware's illegal immigrants often have little access to primary care. When they're sick, they end up in the emergency rooms of Delaware's hospitals, crowding out insured patients while generating bills they can't pay. The hospitals get some federal funding to compensate for the cost of caring for …

All this talk about ER overcrowding has caught Congress's attention. The Senate Health subcommittee on bioterrorism and public health preparedness heard testimony about the growing problem in ERs and the impact that a disaster could have on the nation's emergency departments. In the ten years from 1994 to 2004, the number of ER visits rose 18 percent, to 110 million. But over that same time …

A number of hospitals are investing in pediatric emergency rooms that separate children (and parents) from the stress of visiting a regular ER. A recent IOM report warned that most ERs aren't prepared to provide adequate pediatric care. Despite the fact that 26 percent of patients arriving at U.S. emergency rooms are children, only 6 percent of emergency departments were found to have adequate facilities for pediatric cases. Hospitals are improving their pediatric care by providing staff …

In Jacksonville, FL, clinics are taking the pressure off overworked emergency rooms--and saving money in the process. A substantial number of emergency department visits are not life-threatening cases, such as ear and respiratory infections. These cases end up in the ER because uninsured patients have nowhere else to turn. But clinics provide patients another option by treating common illnesses for …

> Newly elected AMA president William Plested shares his thoughts the future of hospital technology, his views on nationalized healthcare and predicts the role healthcare will play in the next presidential election. Not surprisingly, he argues that doctors and patients should have more say in the functioning of the healthcare system: "[I]t's the physicians and the patients that must design a system. We can't have politicians or insurance companies doing it." …

The Institute of Medicine released a closely-watched report warning that U.S. emergency rooms are dangerously overworked. According to researchers, demand for emergency department services has increased 26 percent over the past decade. That's put a strain on the ability of hospitals to handle the most important cases. Researchers found that 500,000 ambulances a year are diverted because emergency departments are too crowded to accept them. The authors also warn that most emergency rooms …

The average emergency wait in 2005 was three hours and 42 minutes, according to a new report released by consultancy Press Ganey. Wait times in Iowa emergency departments are the shortest in the nation, averaging 2 hours and 18 minutes. Patients arriving at emergency rooms in Arizona can look forward to a much longer stay--nearly 5 hours. Hospitals in Utah were not far behind, averaging four hours and five minutes. Press Ganey argues that hospitals can minimize potential problems by …

African-Americans trust health workers less than other ethnic groups do, a new study out in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that African-Americans were "were significantly more likely than whites to report low trust in health care providers." The authors point at high unisurance levels as the source of problem, arguing that a lack of coverage forces patients into emergency rooms and clinics and encounters with …

The intellectual food fight in the nation's editorial and Op-Ed pages over Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's plan to reform healthcare shows no signs of slowing down. On Monday, Romney defended the plan in a piece for The Wall Street Journal. Romney argued that many people simply refuse to buy coverage. "Why? Because it is expensive and because they know that if they become seriously ill, they will get free or subsidized treatment at the hospital. Why pay for …