Community Checkup

More bad news with regard to medical care. In an earlier post, I mentioned a study that showed an ethnic gap in pain killer prescriptions. This time, a study shows longer waiting times at emergency rooms–for everyone, and especially for minorities. The study involved national data of emergency room visits consisting of over 92,000 adult patients.

[N]ew research found that waiting times in emergency rooms have increased by 36 percent for all patients, to an average of 30 minutes per patient. And the sickest sometimes have to wait the longest: As many as one-quarter of all heart attack patients had to wait 50 minutes or longer before seeing a doctor.[Source: Forbes]

As the last sentence of the quote indicated, the scariest findings have to do with heart attack patients. For these patients, where time is crucial, the average wait time increased from 8 minutes in 1997 to 20 minutes in 2004.

There were ethnic and gender differences in waiting times too:

The study also found that blacks, Hispanics and women had to wait longer for care. Whites waited an average of 24 minutes, while blacks had to wait an average of 31 minutes and Hispanics had to wait 33 minutes on average. Wilper said it’s possible that blacks and Hispanics might be more likely to visit hospitals that have longer wait times in general.[Source: Forbes]

Again, ethnic differences among heart attack patients are the most disturbing. Among this group, Hispanics (22 minutes) waited almost twice as long as whites (11 minutes). The authors of the study speculate that hospitals serving these groups may be particularly overcrowded resulting in longer waits.

The increased waiting time must have been related to whether patients had insurance or not right? Nope. The study found that regardless of insurance status, everyone is waiting longer.

The solution? Among several other solutions, the authors of the study and others suggest better hospital management to reduce overcrowded ER’s. Until that happens, educate and empower yourself.