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Even for ER visits alone, it's not true that patients are "usually" incapacitated or on the verge of death. Something like a third aren't even urgent and only a
by unishark 5y ago
Even for ER visits alone, it's not true that patients are "usually" incapacitated or on the verge of death. Something like a third aren't even urgent and only a small percentage are admitted to the hospital. And the most common reasons for visits are mostly pain complaints with a conscious patient. On average people get triaged to the waiting room to wait for 40 minutes or whatever.
There was a thread here a while back about something like an emergency-mode uber for replacing ambulances for most ER trips. Something similar might also be done for shopping for cheaper urgent care too perhaps. Say a clinic that is open late and will check out your scary rash/cough/pain without charging so much.
- vletal 5y agoIn Czechia we have sufficient capacity of ambulances and other emergency services. What happens is that off peak they serve to help move old people to hospital, like a super expensive taxi. In these cases I can see how "emergency Uber" could help. On the other hand the doctors serving in these ambulances are usually extremely well prepared, the best MD students go to study to serve there. Even if it is one in a hundred cases, they will recognize the stroke from a random chest pain. Replacing them would surely increase the death rate in these cases...
- unishark 5y agoSure but you can make such an argument about every single medical issue. People can drop dead in a few days due to an unexpectedly aggressive toe infection. At some point we need to compare risks to costs. There will always be a trade-off between quality and cost. If you accept nothing less than highest quality (enforced by law and an extremely litigious society), then you get the US hyper-inflation of healthcare prices. Also in the US, I think ambulances typically only have EMT's and paramedics. Though sometimes it can cost as much as the ER itself.