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Healthcare Industry News > Emergency Room Patients Facing Longer Waits Since 1990's Emergency Room Patients Facing Longer Waits Since 1990'sHealth insurance may not be the only medical concern facing patients in the U. S. According to a study released last week, the waiting time in American emergency rooms are significantly longer than they were in the 1990s, even for people with serious emergencies such as heart attacks.The study found that 25% of all heart attack victims had to wait 50 minutes or longer just to see a doctor in 2004. Even when a triage nurse designated patients as in need of immediate care they ended up waiting 40 percent longer than they had in 1997. The average wait for heart attack patients is 20 minutes - an increase from 8 minutes in 1997. While that increase may not seem great, in an emergency situation every minute counts and could spell the difference between life and death for a patient. The study also found an increase in the number of emergency room visits - from 93.4 million in 1994 to 110.2 million in 2004 - even though 12% fewer hospitals were operating such facilities. Most of the facilities that have closed did so because they lost money for the hospitals. Read original story in www.reuters.com |
 
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