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.”
HA! Try THAT with socialized health care!
That is socialized medicine….I’m willing to bet that at least half of the 9 people responsible for those visits are on welfare and did not pay a penny anyway. If its free, why not ab-use it.
Your tax dollars hard at work.
I say, take a .38 caliber aspirin and call me in the morning.
“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,”
Lies, all lies. That is impossible in the US without expensive, private insurance.
You people are douches with your demonizing of socialized medicine. People are forced into emergency rooms because that is one of the only places to get care. If health care was afforded to everyone these folks would have drug treatment, preventative care, mental health screenings and wouldn’t be forced to go to the emergency room. When did health care become a privilege only for you douches? Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness except when douches make the rules?
I read that yesterday in the local eNews here in Dallas and WOW, totally floored.
Free and comfy bed with catered food by way of abusing EMT services.
I work EMS – we have a lady who regularly calls at 3am for either “a sore toe” or “fell down yesterday, feel sick now.” She’s living in a halfway house, on the dole. You and I are paying for every trip to the ER.
I suspect a lot of welfare recipients are given tips on how to use the system by so-called “advocacy groups.” Suckit, you’re an idealist, get a clue.
Oh Paddy, you are just the EXPERT on everything, aren’t you? Apparently you are too highbrow to know what goes on with the lowlives. Without access to preventative care, mental healthcare and rehab for substance abuse, that is what you get. Just try getting affordable (or any) healthcare when you are unemployed or underemployed. You wait for months on appointments and sit on the phone all day to get a live person on the other end of the phone for regular appointments. It is a nightmare. But I guess people like you just don’t get it if you have never been there. The hospital cannot turn those people away and THAT is why they go there. Better to wait 27 hours in the ER to see a doc than 3 months out. Wake up.
#5 I have friend in EMS as well and concede abuse but this one is over the top. I’m surprised there is no way to stop abuse like this.
On your other point on advocacy groups… I belong to two advocacy group: Women in Distress and troubled teens and see no evidence of such groups providing “tips on how to abuse the system”. If anything, I’m much more concerned with wall street and government abusing the system but that’s just me.
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.”
Why oh why can’t people read more than the headline.
These people are not mentally all there. Instead of treating them with health care, the ERs just release them back onto the street. They NEED health care, and most likely mental health care.
Paddy,
Did you mean “said”?
I don’t get your Rice-a Roni remark but you probably have some clever little condescending meaning there. You would be wise to grasp that readers don’t get your sarcasm without noting that you are indeed being sarcastic. That is why emoticons were invented.
Paddy-O you are so clueless. Its a federal law that you cannot turn someone away from the ER, even (or especially) if they don’t have insurance. The ER IS SOCIALIZED medicine today. Like #6 and #5 the EMS guy can tell you…people that have no money, no job, and nothing better to do call 911 for some fun. All free, to them. Google for “Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act”
Frankly Paddy I am tired of seeing your posts. You post on EVERYTHING, and there is no way anyone could know that much about every topic. Dvorak needs to add an “ignore user” feature to this blog…now that is something I’d be willing to pay for. Why not just comment when you have something to add, not just when you want to fart out nonsense.
“Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless.”
Why treat the problem when you can make a news story out of it?
Healthcare is not a right, it is a privilege.
However, that being said…its our own best interest to have facilities to attend to the needs of the mentally challenged or those addicted to substances.
Years ago the government eliminate a huge amount of social services that would have attended to the individuals that are part of this story. Mental institutions and the like…
What the study of the ER visits will indicate is that there is a need for a ubiquitous clinical system that attends to those without a primary care physician or insurance. They will also see a benefit in reopening mental facilities…as it is cheaper to care for them there than it is in the ER.
There are only 2191 days in the 6 year period. One of these 9 people had to be in the ER every day.
Now I don’t know any details, but “Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues…” seems to be an indicator of something.
It seems drug rehab would have been cheaper.
I agree paddy-o posts are totally redundant and predictable at this point. He should go away.
Looks like an opportunity to augment the hospital staff with better technology, better training, or an improved method. I have never found a hospital visit very pleasant, but I suppose if you are eating garbage or sleeping on the street perhaps a hospital is a comfy place to go.
It seems to me that if the goal of a medical institutions is to help, then these people should be referred to the appropriate care (mental or otherwise). Kicking them to the curb or generally barring them from access is avoiding responsibility, and allowing the cycle to continue by not providing an adequate solution is simply dumping money down the hole.
If the goal of the hospital is to make money and turn a profit, then they are certainly accomplishing part of their objective, now they only need to make certain the folks allowed past the doors have a much thicker wallet.
“Healthcare is not a right, it is a privilege. ”
Actually, according to the United Nations, and the Declaration of Human Rights, access to healthcare *is* a right for every human being on this planet.
But what the fuck do those fuckers know anyway, right?
couple of years ago my daughter was throwing up and becoming very dehydrated from a flu bug while on vacation. we went to the emergency room since it was late at night (she was 2 at the time) and we had to wait and wait and wait. after about a 3hr wait we finally got in because they said they just got a room to open up. while in there the room in the room next to us there was a mexican girl and i think her mom or older relative there with her. she was there for….wait for it….A PREGNANCY TEST!! yeah thats right, my daughter was dehydrating in the emergency room waiting room and this (probably illegal) mexican was there for a $20 pregnancy test. that shit needs to be turned away, im sorry. how much did that visit by her cost the taxpayers? and could have cost me my daughters life???
They went once a week…Do the math. Sounds like a regular appointment. Maybe if they had a doctor somewhere else the tax payers could save some money.
Looksee at the worldwide numbers…
Our ERs are costing $1000/visit because we *don’t* have a socialized system.
Saw the CBO Peter Orszag saying that $400 Billion is wasted each year because of this.
That number seems low when you add in loss-of-life:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN07651650
madtruckman, that is indeed a near tragedy.
There should have been a triage nurse on duty. I believe here in Ontario, Canada, the girl wanting a pregnancy test would have been redirected to a walk-in clinic where there are usually 2-3 doctors on duty. There are usually several per city, where you can just go without an appointment and wait if it’s crowded… just like an ER.. except the problems are mostly colds and rashes.
More serious cases are redirected to the nearest ER if the triage nurse thinks it could be more serious than you think. These walk-in places are very handy if you don’t have a regular doctor, of which there has been a shortage here for more than 10 years. The system works well.
My only experience with triage was when i drove myself to the hospital while having a heart attack (yup, I was that stupid, but also in denial). The triage nurse talked to me for a few minutes, determined that it wasn’t indigestion and got me “in” in less than 5 minutes. The clog-buster they eventually gave me cost the system $10,000 (i found out by asking a lot of questions). My OHIP insurance had been about $300 – $600/year for 30 years at that time (now the employer pays (but you pay indirectly of course) so in some way I paid anyway. It’s not really free as many of you think, except for very low income. After-care with a heart doctor for 5 years has been expensive I bet. It’s a good system IMO.
I rarely go to the doctor (even though it’s covered). There are not many that abuse the system because, like everything else, if it’s “free” all the time with no restrictions, the hoarding instinct doesn’t kick in. Not many people have the time to waste in a doctor’s office, or a desire to sit among other sick people for a long wait when you know you really don’t have to be there… unless you are nuts.
If health care is an entitlement or not is up to the society the would ultimately have to pay for it. In the United States no one is entitled to any health care that either that person or the government is not willing to pay for.
To dictate that someone is entitled to the services of another without someone compensating the service provider is effectively slavery.
However after stating the above I would say that the question about being entitled to health care isn’t the right question. For the most part our society has already decided that individuals are entitled to health care.
The really question is what level and what quality of health care is going to be the minimum entitlement. Currently both are pretty poor.
This story confirms what I see everyday, which is that there are a number of mentally ill people that need to be cared for in a mental institution instead of running around the streets.
I work in a really, really crappy part of Dallas where I see the lowest of the low everyday scrounging around to stay alive (I guess). The number that I see that are clearly mentally ill is astounding. One of the mistakes made in the past 30 years was the complete demonization of state run mental institutions. Yes there were many problems, but that doesn’t mean close them all down. There are people that society needs off the streets, for our safety and theirs. And yes, we all should pay for that care…
What this illustrates is how SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, or single payer, or medi-care coverage for all, etc could be provided to ALL Americans with the net result of better health outcomes and a savings in money. REPEAT: total coverage for less money than spent now.
I doubt Obama will get it thru because this country has a Paddy-O screw loose about socialized medicine and the LIE-bertarians get upset when they save money but someone else still imposes slavery on them through the tax system, but – – its a nice idea.
Well, this is a report by the Integrated Care Collaboration. Do you think that they may stand to benefit from a report such as this? I do. This report should be followed up on by a impartial government agency or commission never the less. But I’ll wait to pass judgment till I see that non prejudicial report.
JimR, you are right on the money. For every person who abuses the system because it’s free, there’s someone like me who rarely goes to the doctor (even though it’s completely free here in BC) because either I’m busy, or I don’t want to waste my doctor’s time, or I think the free services are better used for those who are really sick.
Socialized medicine is not the root of all evil so many Americans claim it is (even when they’ve had zero experience with it). Yes, I’m taxed more for it, but a society where everyone has access to free (or almost free) healthcare is better off in the long run.
#27–Girl Friend==each sentence standing on its own after the first one makes you sound like a complete idiot.
But I too will wait for an independent governmental un-biased report to confirm what common sense alone indicates.
#29–fpp==why not just tell the truth? You don’t use healthcare services because you don’t get sick. Why obfuscate the issue?
Get rid of the insurance companies, and their pencil pushers deciding who gets what health care, and the execs who get huge bonuses and payola, and see how fast the cost of health care goes down.
Had this been in another country where the damn insurance companies don’t have a strangle hold on the government, the cost would have probably been $3,000! The insurance companies want their “fair share” so that they can pay their execs, so that makes the hospitals raise the cost to everyone.
>These people are not mentally all there. Instead of treating them with health care, the ERs just release them back onto the street.
Yeah, liberals were pretty big on emptying the mental hospitals 30 years ago.
#31 bobbo – actually, I do get sick, but I just tough it out…and the few times when I do see the doctor because I’m sicker than usual it’s almost always “you’ll get better”, and I walk away feeling stupid for not trusting my instincts.