Healthcare Crisis: 9 Patients Made Nearly 2,700 ER Visits

[RedlightG20]

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9 Patients Made Nearly 2,700 ER Visits in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas – Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.

"What we're really trying to do is find out who's using our emergency rooms ... and find solutions," said Ann Kitchen, executive director of the group, which presented the report last week to the Travis County Healthcare District board.

The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said.

Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless. Five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50, the report said, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.

"It's a pretty significant issue," said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, chief of the emergency department at University Medical Center at Brackenridge, which has the busiest ERs in the area.

Solutions include referring some frequent users to mental health programs or primary care doctors for future care, Ziebell said.

"They have a variety of complaints," he said. With mental illness, "a lot of anxiety manifests as chest pain."

:doh::doh::doh:

[Thiebear]

I like to point out the illegal use of the ER and Schools etc..

but this is just abuse even if you were regular citizen with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Hell, they went more often than the nurses that work there.

[Midnight Judges]

WTF! Do they use the ER every time they have to poop? :mad:

[PleaseBlitz]

Thats about once per week. Damn.

[Prosperity]

****ing parasites

[Larry]

Let them eat cake.

[zoony]

This kind of thing should infuriate everyone

[frostyj]

I would like to see the stats on illegal immigrants at emergency rooms.

But this story is insane, it is only 9 ppl in one hospital. This is what the gov should be looking at and not circumsisions or how to fix collage football playoffs.

[Larry]

So, where else do y'all suggest that they go?

[zoony]

So, where else do y'all suggest that they go?

psychiatrist? padded cell?

[Stophovr6]

7 have mental health issues. Wouldn't have been cheaper to place them in a mental facility?

[SnyderShrugged]

It also begs the question as to why mundane conditions and seemingly hypochondria should cost an average of $1k+ per visit?

Yes, the crazy amount of visits is atrocious, but why does each visit cost that exhorbitent amount in the first place?

[PleaseBlitz]

So, where else do y'all suggest that they go?

A primary care physician like normal people. :whoknows:

Or Canada.

[Duckus]

seven were diagnosed with mental health issues

We have to find a way to deal with mental health issues, especially of poor/homeless people because if not they simple fill up hospitals and jails.

If these people had several mental health issues, they probably should not have been out on the street, but there is no alternative really.

[Duckus]

7 have mental health issues. Wouldn't have been cheaper to place them in a mental facility?

They hardly exist anymore.

[Larry]

7 have mental health issues. Wouldn't have been cheaper to place them in a mental facility?

Depends.

Under the current "solution", they're "costing" (I put the word "cost" in quotes because I think we all know that the price of an ER visit varies hugely depending on who's paying the bill. Is this number the "cash price"? Or is it the "Blue Cross price"?) roughly $1,000 a week a person.

How much mental health facility you think you can get for $1,000 a week a patient?

Now, if the mental health facility has the power to cure the patient in a few weeks, and get their hineys out of this "system", then it's a great bargain.

'Course, the taxpayers would have to be willing to pay for mental health care, and they pretty much aren't willing to do that. (They'd much rather eliminate the mental health care system, and then act surprised and outraged when the patients they kicked out show up in the ER.)

[Prosperity]

Supposedly San Francisco found a way to reduce health care costs and increase services by opening up free health care clinics (as opposed to insuring poor people). The free clinics give poor people access to primary care so they don't end up going to emergency rooms to see a doctor. Also I think it's cheaper to have clinics because they won't have the regulation that emergency rooms have... not sure about all this but I think I remember hearing it on the news

[Larry]

A primary care physician like normal people. :whoknows:

Or Canada.

Wow, you're right.

If only we had a system where the taxpayers paid for people to go to primary care physicians.

[RedlightG20]

It also begs the question as to why mundane conditions and seemingly hypochondria should cost an average of $1k+ per visit?

Yes, the crazy amount of visits is atrocious, but why does each visit cost that exhorbitent amount in the first place?

I would venture a guess and say that average cost covers the cost of having highly qualified ER doctors and a full load of experienced ER nurses on hand 24 hours a day, every day, year-round. The ER needs the staff to be prepared for for swarms of people when something big happens, not to mention all of the expensive equipment and materials needed for any kind of injury or illness and the ever-rising insurance costs to cover their asses.

Just a guess, though.

[PleaseBlitz]

Wow, you're right.

If only we had a system where the taxpayers paid for people to go to primary care physicians.

PCP's take Medicare and Medicaid. :dunce:

Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said.

[Larry]

It also begs the question as to why mundane conditions and seemingly hypochondria should cost an average of $1k+ per visit?

Yes, the crazy amount of visits is atrocious, but why does each visit cost that exhorbitent amount in the first place?

Well, I suspect that there are few places that have the incredible overhead costs that a room in an ER has.

The "rent" on that room has to cover a no doubt staggering array of people and things.

Although I also find myself, whenever I see this subject asking myself:

I think we all know that the "price" of an ER visit depends a lot on who's paying the bill.

(And, in one of those "free market" things that makes me really go , the customer who gets hit with the biggest bill, often several times larger than any other customer, is the customer who's paying cash at the time of service.)

To me, I pretty much can't believe any discussion of how much this or that medical thing costs unless they say whether they're talking in terms of the "cash price", the "Blue Cross price", the "Medicare price", or the "welfare price".

(But, when it comes to ERs, I'm certain that all of them are expensive.)

----------

Although, even then, I can see debate about the cost.

I think we're all assuming that these people aren't going to the ER once a week, for five years, for cardiac arrest. They're going for lots of little things.

But the way things are in ERs, patients with little things have to wait until there isn't a single patient in the place who doesn't have a little thing.

If the patient's complaint is "runny nose", then at the time he got seen, there wasn't a single patient waiting who's complaint was more serious than a runny nose.

Therefore, if, when the staff treated John Doe, they had a choice between treating his runny nose, or sitting around doing nothing, then how much did it actually cost to treat him?

[Larry]

Supposedly San Francisco found a way to reduce health care costs and increase services by opening up free health care clinics (as opposed to insuring poor people). The free clinics give poor people access to primary care so they don't end up going to emergency rooms to see a doctor. Also I think it's cheaper to have clinics because they won't have the regulation that emergency rooms have... not sure about all this but I think I remember hearing it on the news

I think it's a great idea.

I think it'd be great if they were open 24x7, too.

How many of y'all have gone to an ER, simply because your problem wasn't really an emergency, but it was too important to wait for normal business hours and then call for an appointment some time next month?

[SnyderShrugged]

I would venture a guess and say that average cost covers the cost of having highly qualified ER doctors and a full load of experienced ER nurses on hand 24 hours a day, every day, year-round. The ER needs the staff to be prepared for for swarms of people when something big happens, not to mention all of the expensive equipment and materials needed for any kind of injury or illness and the ever-rising insurance costs to cover their asses.

Just a guess, though.

well, despite your attempt at sarcasm, virtually none of those items appear to have been needed for the cases in question.

I like Larry's take of the pricing structures and the dependancy on "who pays".

An experienced triage nurse could have easily determined the root of the visits and modified what was needed early on, thus avoiding much of the expenses.

[PleaseBlitz]

I think it's a great idea.

I think it'd be great if they were open 24x7, too.

How many of y'all have gone to an ER, simply because your problem wasn't really an emergency, but it was too important to wait for normal business hours and then call for an appointment some time next month?

I have. Once. I threw out my back the night before the inauguration. I would have gone to my insurances facility, but 66 was closed.

And my insurance paid for it.

Your hypothetical is a bit different than going every week for 6 years.

[Stophovr6]

Well, to balance things out a little, I've only used the ER once in my life.