Federal Legislation Could Provide Help For Emergency Room Woes
June 19, 2006, Americans everywhere depend on emergency rooms to be open and ready to provide care in times of crisis, but a recent report by the Institute of Medicine indicates overcrowding in our nation’s emergency rooms may leave them unable to address our health care needs.
The news is especially troubling to me because of a terrifying experience I had nearly three years ago. A drive with my wife and our then two-year-old daughter, Peyton, turned into the worst experience of my life when Peyton went into convulsions in the back seat of our car. Leslie and I rushed her to the nearest hospital, where she received good care from the doctors and nurses at the ER.
We were fortunate to be near an ER that day, but not every community is so well equipped to handle emergencies. ER visits are up from 90 million in 1993 to nearly 114 million in 2003. During that same time period, 425 of our nation’s ERs closed their doors. As you can imagine, more patients combined with fewer ERs has led to severe overcrowding.
Earlier this year, the American College of Emergency Physicians released a report card grading each state’s emergency care system. Tennessee received a C-. Not a single state received an A.
Across our country, emergency rooms are so overcrowded that ambulances are being forced to divert patients to other hospitals farther away. According to the American Hospital Association, ambulance diversions occurred at nearly half of all hospitals and at almost 70 percent of urban hospitals. On average in the U.S., an ambulance is diverted once every minute.
These diversions result in more time before a patient sees a doctor and leave fewer ambulances available for other patients. And during an emergency, a few lost minutes can make a crucial difference.
Patients who need care from specialists may face additional troubles. The Institute of Medicine reports that many specialists are reluctant to work in the ER because of the difficulty getting paid due to the fact that many emergency patients are uninsured and because of the added liability they take on when treating uninsured patients in the ER.
The news is no better for the youngest patients. While children make up 27 percent of all ER patients, only 6 percent of ERs have all the equipment necessary for treating their emergencies.
If we have this much trouble caring for the daily flow of emergency room visitors, what would happen if our ERs had to handle an increased number of patients as a result of a widespread health emergency, disaster or terrorist attack? It seems they would be woefully unprepared to handle those situations.
But the problem in our ERs is not irreversible. The report does offer some solutions to fix the ER crisis, such as improving hospital efficiency to reduce wait times and increasing funding to ERs.
Fortunately, there are steps Congress can take at the federal level to ensure emergency departments remain open and emergency physicians remain available during emergencies.
Last year, I introduced the Access to Emergency Medical Services Act, which would provide additional funding for emergency physicians and limited liability protection for physicians when they treat uninsured patients in emergency rooms.
The bipartisan bill also would provide financial incentives for hospitals to move admitted patients out of emergency departments to help alleviate overcrowded ER beds and waiting rooms.
It’s time for Congress to act on this critical issue. Quite literally, it could be a matter of life or death.
