Medicalbag - October 31, 2017 - By Joel Cooper
"Emergency departments (EDs) are the Grand Central Station of medicine in this country. Serving an estimated 141.4 million patients a year and providing an average of 47.7% of all medical care delivered in the United States,1EDs are the hub, the core, the main cattle crossing, and the big monkey cage of medicine.
Like giant mirrors, EDs reflect everything good and bad about our nation's healthcare system. And like lightning rods in a raging thunderstorm, they bear the brunt of all negative energy resulting from their often-cited and harshly criticized overcrowding problem.
But the truth is that fierce logjams in the ED, and the resulting plethora of proposed yet often unheeded solutions, are certainly nothing new. In fact, the whole topic of ED overcrowding is newsworthy only because it's pathognomonic of a deeper healthcare delivery system malady, and a failure on society's part to confront and come to grip with the real issues..."