ERs are designed to handle emergencies but people use them for many other reasons. From ignorance, to lack of money, to just not having a PCP. Another big one i

ERs are designed to handle emergencies but people use them for many other reasons. From ignorance, to lack of money, to just not having a PCP. Another big one is that for low income families with government healthcare, taking your kid to the ER on Sunday afternoon with a runny nose doesn’t cost any more than waiting till Monday morning to see their pediatrician. But the primary bottleneck at an ER is usually not a lack of physicians. It more often a lack of rooms and/or nurses because patients are being boarded there, or are just still there waiting on labs. And Waiting 2 hours with an appointment for an office is definitely not the norm.