KHN: Emergency room patients increasingly leave California hospitals against medical advice, and experts say crowded ERs are likely to blame.
About 352,000 California ER visits in 2017 ended when patients left after seeing a doctor but before their medical care was complete. That’s up by 57%, or 128,000 incidents, from 2012, according to data from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
Another 322,000 would-be patients left the emergency room without seeing a doctor, up from 315,000 such episodes in 2012.
Several hospital administrators said overcrowding is a likely culprit for the trend. California emergency room trips grew by almost 20%, or 2.4 million, from 2012 to 2017.
Moreover, ER wait times also increased for many during that time period: In 2017, the median ER wait time for patients before admission as inpatients to California hospitals was 336 minutes — or more than 5½ hours. That is up 15 minutes from 2012, according to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The median wait time for those discharged without admission to the hospital dropped 12 minutes over that period, but still clocked in at more than 2½ hours in 2017. more here
I moved to Texas. Everything in California is on a downward spiral. Such an amazing place in the 70’s, ruined by socialists.
I went to Green Hospital about 3 months ago, was waited on within 15 minutes of arrival at the ER. X-Rayed and admitted within 30 minutes, Fast, Friendly, Efficient, Professional!!
Der Kommissar ObamassarKare, working EXACTLY as it’s supposed to!
Killing OFF “the little people,” at little to no cost to the gummint! 😡
Well, if every illegal, transient and dope head did not go to the er for the sniffles, hospitals would be nearly empty… the fact that the PAYING customers cover everyone else is a crime. I do not know the answer(s?), but I do know that the indigent are killing the taxpayers.
“Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.” Geo. Orwell
its all illegals without insurance…. they take their limousine to the ER too! (ambulance they can’t pay for either)
Wait until all the other multi-millions of illegals make it through our porous border and today’s crowded ER’s and endless wait times for emergency care will seem like a walk in the park or a leisure Sunday stroll!
O.k. – new slogan for California’s version of ObamaCare: If you can find your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
thank you saint ronald reagan for signing emtala into law in 1986. along with the amnesty that turned california permanently blue. praise be.
note to every Illegal …. MEXICO HAS BETTER FREE HEALTH CARE! STAY IN MEXICO!
… you’re welcome
@Crackerbaby, The answer is, “Skin in the game!!!” An upfront co-pay of $10, or the cost of a pack of cigarettes, and the grifters will think twice about running to the ER for their NON emergencies. It really is that simple. Indimex, RN
In my experience, (twenty three years of RN experience in ICU and ER), the AMA patients aren’t the ones that pay anyway. They are either uninsured, or, more likely, on Medicaid. I would also like to know what percentage of AMA patients are addicts? I’m willing to bet there is a direct correlation. The Latino’s are willing to wait, and, only rarely, difficult.
If they get tired of waiting and just go home, it wasn’t much of an “emergency” in the first place.
Or so it seems to me.
Maybe, just maybe liberally run hospitals are incapable of handling the numerous ‘emergencies’ of illegal aliens…..or, maybe the emergency is not quite up to par.
Maybe, the grifters thought ‘FREE’ included instant results.
Give priority to cases where doctors determine that the patient’s life is in immediate danger, or permanent serious injury may result from lack of treatment. Then give the rest a number and take your sweet time getting to them. Oh, and once admitted require proof of citizenship or legal residence. Persons providing proof of citizenship upon arrival go to the head of the line.