Health Law

Emergency Room Wait times increasing

Tick Tock, Tick Tock.  Does it seem like it takes forever when you go to an emergency room?  You may actually be on to something there.  A study released recently shows that emergency room wait times are increasing.

Emergency room wait times across the country increased 36 percent between 1997 and 2004, according to a Harvard study published today.
...

The study, the first providing detailed analysis of national trends in emergency room waits, showed wait times increased to a median of 30 minutes in 2004 from 22 minutes in 1997. Such an increase likely has a negative impact on patient care and may result in more people leaving the hospital without seeing a physician, the study's authors said.

"Patients who present to the emergency room with time-sensitive conditions may be harmed because they're not receiving the care they need in a timely way," said the lead author, Dr. Andrew Wilper, a fellow in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School. "There's prolonged pain and suffering."

Source:  Chron.com

Full post as published by Cerebral Palsy Law Blog on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).