This story posted by MSNBC claims that 2,678 hospital emergency room visits were made by 9 people in Austin, Tx. From 2003 to 2008 the story, done by the Integrated Care Collaboration, the same 9 folks visited emergency departments 2,678 times and cost the taxpayers a mere $3 million. According to MSNBC, the average ED visit costs about $1,000 and that the taxpayers were on the hook for the bills via Medicade and Medicare.
Read the full story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29998460/
They also noted in this study the people in question had drug abuse problems, mental health issues, or were homeless...both men and women in thier 40's and 50's.
A similar story was covered by CBS. Read it here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/02/eveningnews/main4915011.shtml The CBS story adds the point that "Overusers are part of the reason trips by Americans to the emergency room rose 30 percent in 10 years - from 93 million per year in 1997 to 121 million ER visits annually in 2007." and "...the overusing patients usually complained of chest pains, at times running up diagnostic bills of $20,000 in a single visit, and forcing other patients to wait." An interesting commentary, don't you think?
See my previous Mitigation Journal post: Ambulance Wait Times and compare my solutions to the findings of who is useing the EDs in this study...I may actually be on to something!
ALS Credentialling Policy- DRAFT
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ALS Regionalization - Public Comment Period
Comments should be forwarded to opc@urmc.rochester.edu and must be received
no later than Friday, December 11...
1 day ago
1 comments:
Not that difficult to obtain really. All that is needed is nine people making 5 trips to the emergency rooms a week. Rochester General and Strong both have a patient that they see sometimes twice a day.
I know at Monroe we have a regular patient who goes to the hospital for a variety of reasons every week, and when she decides that she is feeling well enough to stay home her daughter is in "need" for an emergency room visit.
I am sure Rural Metro has the same scenario playing out for them every day also.
As providers, we are all pretty smart (I know some of you aren't even kinda smart) for the most part we have the common sense and good judgment to be able to tell some one no. But we aren't allowed to refuse to transport some one who asks.
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