Does the US have a hospital problem?

Question

I heard the waiting rooms in all US hospitals are full of dangerous people and you have to wait hours for treatment

Answer 1

Partially true, in many areas. A very LARGE number of uninsured people like using emergency rooms for regular doctor visits. So it very much clogs up the system. If you have an ear infection, or a cold, or something minor like that, here in Houston you could wait 10 - 15 hours to see the doctor.

However, the FIRST thing they do is assess your need - so if you are having a heart attack, a severe asthma attack, or have serious bleeding from an accident, you DO get in right away. Broken arms, minor cuts, bumps & bruises, you wait a long time.

Also, if you go to the ER at 8am, you have the shortest wait. If you go after 5pm, or all night long, is when you wait the longest - that's when people don't want to go to the doctor because they don't want to take time off of work.

Regarding the dangerous people - it depends on the neighborhood.

Answer 2

I have been on an ambulance for 7 years in Los Angeles California. I have only heard of one shooting in an Emergency Room and One Stabbing in a waiting room. The shooting had extenuating circumstances. It was actually a gang related problem... The shooting was the police who shot a man who had just shot another man. The man the police shot was coming to finish the job. That is a rarity.

The waiting part is a reality. The worst wait time was 24 hrs but that was at a county hospital (for people without health insurance) but if you are smart you know which ones to go to. If you go between 3am and 6am most emergency rooms are empty.

The emergency rooms are actually safer than the bus, subway, or supermarket. They have cameras, coded entrances, security guards, and cops are in and out all night long.

Its just as dangerous as anywhere else in the US. Just to put it in perspective... NASA just had a shooting in their lobby not to long ago and they have better security than a hospital.

Answer 3

I think you heard wrong. Some hospitals in Southern California have closed their emergency rooms. Illegal aliens have been getting free treatment and were putting the hospitals in danger of bankruptcy. The US government has a law that says anyone reporting for treatment to an emergency room has to be treated. But there is no funding for this law.

Answer 4

depends on the hospital. If you go into a hospital in the ghettos of LA on a friday night than yeah, you'll probably encounter some dodgy people.

Try going to an A&E in Staines on a friday night. Same deal.

Answer 5

Because people tend to use Emergency Rooms for things that ARE NOT Emergencies. You have people clogging ERs with hangnails and diarrhea and that makes people who have actual emergencies wait.

Answer 6

Yes, it's called liberal polititions and illegal aliens.