AUSTIN, Texas – Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.
“What we’re really trying to do is find out who’s using our emergency rooms … and find solutions,” said Ann Kitchen, executive director of the group, which presented the report last week to the Travis County Healthcare District board.
The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said. Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless. Five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50, the report said, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday. “It’s a pretty significant issue,” said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, chief of the emergency department at University Medical Center at Brackenridge, which has the busiest ERs in the area. Solutions include referring some frequent users to mental health programs or primary care doctors for future care, Ziebell said.
“They have a variety of complaints,” he said. With mental illness, “a lot of anxiety manifests as chest pain.”
HA! Try THAT with socialized health care!
Solving the problem of ED abuse (whether intentional or not) is very difficult. Patients over utilize an ED for a variety of reasons such as mental illness, drug abuse/diversion, no insurance, no primary physician, and a lack of understanding of the function of an ED (i.e. thinking that having a cold warrants going to the ED). Talking about sending ED power users away or denying them service is not realistic because 1) EDs are required by law to treat all patients 2) that does not help those who do have problems (like mental illness). Furthermore, as everyone is aware, discussion like that gets very politically charged and tends to just turn into a flame fest. The key is finding the appropriate treatment for these patients. For some patients (those who purposefully abuse the ED to get narcotics) that means treating them with out narcotics; for those that are with out insurance that may mean getting them signed up for Medicaid; for others that are mentally ill it may mean getting them in touch with the appropriate social services. Unfortunately, this is much easier said then done and EDs often do not have the technology or proper understanding of the problem to implement effective solutions.
However, EDs are awakening to the problems of patient over utilization. My company, Collective Medical Technologies, has been working on this very issue with several hospitals in the state of Washing. We are seeing very promising results in both reducing non-emergent/abusive visits to the ED as well as getting the appropriate treatment to patients. In some cases we have been able to reduce visits by 60% (and this is without denying a single patient treatment or service).
Adam Green
President
Collective Medical Technologies
http://www.collectivemedicaltech.com
#120 Well, it seems you’re the one who’s lost…it completely. Whether you like it or not, that is the Mexican Social Security, which is what you want for your country.
Is not my “standard” that IS social security. Or why else do you think their name stands for? http://tinyurl.com/cmyog6
And it has absolutely nothing to do with what you have in the US. Which is kinda funny that you show what you have now in the US, since you clearly want what Mexico has.
Having trouble with literacy pedro?
http://tinyurl.com/djn7b8
Also:
Try again pedro; perhaps in a country with socialized medicine they could do a brain transplant to replace your defective one.
#123 No literacy troubles at all. I know the IMSS and it is what you want as your social security. The government takes money from people and makes hospitals out of that. You also get medical attention at IMSS hospitals with your payment. Real crappy attention with some exceptions.
The private/government part is described as social security patients (payed by the government) that get attention in private hospitals. Most of the times they are referred to a private facility is because the IMSS is either swamped with delayed schedule (months of backlog), IMSS hospitaks don’t have the advanced equipment needed for a test or a particular surgery is only performed at the private institution.
But private hospitals are that, no government oversight on what they charge unless the patient they’re attending comes from the IMSS.
Otherwise is called welfare. Those not covered in the social security are people that don’t pay taxes.
No wonder you’re so confused with the subject.
Here, more literacy for you. The problem with the welfare (non tax-paying) patient care http://tinyurl.com/cqacyk
It doesn’t work because the government keeps cutting budgets (and politicians keep on stealing funds).
Because those things won’t happens in the US, right?
In Canada, many provinces are thinking and allowing private practices (all but abolished in the 70′s) to return because the government cannot keep up with the costs.
But you should get what you wish and live to regret it.