4 ms·
If you're using ERs for what they should be used for, then yeah, you're in shock, or bleeding out, or in mortal peril. Many people do not use them correctly; I
by megaman22 9y ago
If you're using ERs for what they should be used for, then yeah, you're in shock, or bleeding out, or in mortal peril.
Many people do not use them correctly; I can't blame them sometimes, when that's the only option around, but there's a whole host of issues people drift into ERs for that ought to be solved by an aspirin and a night's sleep, or an urgent care clinic. In the past five years, there's been a huge explosion of Convenient MDs and the like springing up everywhere; honestly, if you just had a nurse practitioner or PA assigned or on-call at Rite-Aids or CVSs to write scripts for no-brainer prescription medications, you'd solve half the healthcare problems people deal with.
- donarb 9y agoAnd you have conservatives in this country saying that the poor have access to health care anytime they want by using the emergency room. These are the same people who complain about the poor buying steaks with food stamps and still suggest the poor use the most expensive form of health care rather than ensuring a basic minimum of care be allowed for all citizens.
- bluGill 9y agoBe careful of that though. I recently went to the ER for "chest pain" it wasn't a heart attack, and I had every reason to believe before I went that it was just a listed side effect of my medication. However since it was chest pain I couldn't ignore it. This is not unusual, ~60% of ER chest pain visits are nothing. (I suspect that increasing that number to 75% would be a good thing as it would mean a few more people come in when it is something)