One more post on the subject:
I would say that the overwhelming majority of patients in the ER are not actual emergencies. My professional guess would be in the neighborhood of 70%.
Another issue would be the number of cases that get admitted to the non critical floors (like mine) is way too high. The problem with that is I have at least 2 patients a day, out of my usual 6, that just want to go home. And they just got there a few hours ago after waiting in the ER for a bed to open upstairs. They complain all day about wanting me to get the doctor for them so they can be released. When I tell them that the doc "will be here at some point in the day after they are done with their critical patients" they complain about the medical system.
We also have a very high number of dumps. Families who are just tired of taking care of their family members. They know the medicare rules by heart and will 'dump' their loved one in ER knowing that in 3 days Medicare will pay for another stint in rehab. They dump the patient at ER and then never come see them in the hospital. Most of these patients are not medically needy enough to take up the room on the medical floor but we can't just call a taxi for them and send them home so they occupy a room that could otherwise be used to free up the ER holds. Sad but very, very true.
OK enough ranting - off to golf
