Quote:
|
Malpractice causes Hospital to do unneccessary tests in order to cover their asses so they won't get sued. Insurance companies rightfully don't want to pay for things that are unneccessary, and neither will the government. If the government gets involved they will most likely pass an immunity clause like most municipalities for liability. Meaning if the hospital or doctor screws up, oh well, they have immunity.
|
I worked with a doctor once who would put patients in for admissions based on what the chief complaint was in triage, long before he even saw the patient. He got sued once and was determined to never let it happen again. Worked with many a doctor who would order CAT scans or MRIs even though they knew it wasn't going to tell them anything.
Quote:
|
Another reason that prices are so high, especially in ER's is that people go there for every little thing. People need to be better educated in that ER's are for EMERGENCIES only. Not colds or back pain. that's what family doctors are for and urgent care facilities. Also every ER in the country has to accept people whether or not they have insurance. The people who don't have insurance, for what ever reason, almost never pay their bills. Granted it may be expensive but they can easily work out a payment plan with the hospital. My wife is an ER nurse and 2/3rds of the people who go there are either drug seeking or bringing their kid in for a runny nose
|
Part of that problem lies in the fact there are too few primary care physicians. The general practitioner has gone the way of the dodo bird. Everyone is a specialist these days. Most people don't have one doctor, they have 2 or 3 depending on the number of medical conditions they have. The ones that do see patients as a primary care are horribly overbooked and can't see the back pains/colds for weeks if not months. They always tell their patients that call in to be seen to go to the ER if they want treatment that day. Then there is the instant satisfaction group that want to be treated immediately and will return in 24 hours if they still feel bad.
I won't even go into the drug seekers (either the street bred variety or the ones created by physicians) and the drunk homeless that local police will no longer hold in the cells but instead send to the ER where they tie up beds and staff till they are sober enough to walk out and do it all over again in a few hours.
Lets not forget the abuse of the EMS system which in my area is looked at as a form of taxi service. You'd be amazed what people will call 911 for.
Then there is the problem of an appalling lack of psychiatric services. Too many mentally ill people that need long term care and no where to put them.
Substandard nursing homes and rehabs.
Nursing shortages.
Patients on 10 or 20 different medications.
These are just some of the problems facing ERs. There is an entirely different list of things wrong from the hospital wards perspective, or just about any other department for that matter.
People actually think the government is going to be able to fix things? The same people who rely on polls and lobbyists to tell them what to do. The same ones that want to build bridges to nowhere and can't seem to pass anything without a healthy doses of pork included. Do you really want the government mandating your health care?