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FinalCall.com News
National News
Waiting in the emergency room? You are not alone
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Feb 6, 2008 - 10:48:00 AM
HOUSTON (FinalCall.com) - “This is ridiculous. Every time I come to an emergency room, I have to wait nearly eight hours,” said Tyffanie Rosser as she sits at the Texas Children’s Hospital in the Medical District of Houston.
Her one-year-old son, Ta’Marii, has a 100-plus degree fever but that is not enough to get him quick attention from doctors. “Unless you have blood gushing out or have been shot, it seems like you will have to wait.”
According to a study conducted by the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School, Ms. Rosser is not alone in this experience. The school has released the first detailed look at the increasing trend of prolonged emergency department waits across the United States over a seven-year period to shed light on worsening access to emergency care.
“It has taken four hours alone just for us to be put in a holding room, sign paperwork, and then another two hours to see a doctor. They need to put a system in place that expedites this process,” said Ms. Rosser, who is a 25-year-old single mother.
Just as upset is Ms. Ana Martinez, who is delayed at the emergency room across town at the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital. She left work early in the morning because her four-year-old daughter fell at school. She knows she will not make it back to work. “I have been here for too long. My baby could have a severe internal head injury but I guess she should have shed blood to get faster attention.”
Ms. Martinez doesn’t have insurance because she works for a custodial service that does not provide it and says she can’t afford it. “I don’t make much money as it is and insurance is not cheap. Being here is hourly wages that I didn’t anticipate losing. But my baby is more important,” she said.
Although the Harvard study showed that lengthening emergency department waits have been experienced by all demographic groups, it notably points out longer waits for Blacks (13 percent longer than non-Hispanic Whites) and Hispanics (14.5 percent longer). Women also had longer waits (5.6 percent longer than men). Even for those classified as needing immediate attention, waits increased by 40 percent (from 10 to 14 minutes). Patients suffering heart attacks saw the highest waiting increase from eight minutes in 1997, to 20 minutes in 2004, a 150 percent increase.
The process of gathering the data involved an analysis of over 90,000 emergency department visits to monitor the time between a patient’s arrival in the emergency department and when they were first seen by a doctor. The number of emergency room visits increased from 93.3 million in 1997 to 110.2 million in 2004.
Dr. Andrew Wilper, lead author of the study, said, “EDs close because, in our current payment system, emergency patients are money-losers for hospitals. Planned admissions of elective patients who need procedures are usually more lucrative for two reasons. First, elective patients can be scheduled more conveniently and efficiently, and second, they can be pre-screened for health insurance. Our study suggests that these perverse incentives are causing dangerous delays in potentially life-saving emergency care, even for those with insurance.”
“One contributor to ED crowding is American’s poor access to primary and preventive care which could address medical issues before they become emergencies,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, associate professor of medicine and senior author of the study.
“There is this unwritten rule in emergency departments that those with insurance will get faster medical attention,” said Dr. Akili Graham, a Black doctor who formerly worked at LBJ for three years in the emergency department. He now operates an independent family clinic with his wife in a predominately Black neighborhood in Houston. “But many times when our people go to the emergency room, it is for something that’s not considered an emergency by the doctor’s standards.”
Dr. Graham added that the Black and Hispanic communities are in dire need of empowering education on health and regular check ups at a doctor to avoid having to wait. “I don’t understand why you would take your child to an emergency room for a common cold or flu symptoms. Parents should know holistic remedies for that and take their children in for regular check ups. Stop waiting for the worse to happen,” he advised.
Asked about healthcare being unaffordable, he responded, “I have plenty of patients who come to me without insurance for them or their children. But I notice that they have their nails done, their hair fixed up consistently and their children have the latest Air Jordans. We need to prioritize what it is important. Either we want longevity of life or material things.”
