ER Wait Times Getting Longer(r one minute longer for women -- Kellerm...),Health

Date:1/15/2008

r one minute longer, for women -- Kellermann said it may be that women's heart attack symptoms still aren't recognized as quickly as men's symptoms are. "My hunch is while we're doing a better job understanding that women have heart attacks, too, a woman coming in with chest pain may be given a little less credence than a man with chest pain," he noted.

Wilper said because the causes of the increased wait time are multi-factorial, the solution has to be multi-faceted. "Solutions are likely going to be broad-based," he said.

He said there needs to be an expansion of insurance coverage, modified management of inpatient and elective surgeries because so many ER beds have been lost, and an expansion of primary care that might help ease the overflow at the emergency room.

"This is an issue that cuts across insurance status," said Kellermann, who pointed out that even people with insurance are left waiting in ERs, because there just isn't enough space or enough resources.

"Too many hospital administrators think that the hospital begins on the second floor, but ERs need open spaces and open bays. It's what we used to do, and the problem today is that more and more, we just don't have open space for a heart attack patient. We're like a NASCAR pit crew. We're designed to immediately assess, stabilize and move patients [to treatment]," said Kellermann. Without the open space, he said, the ER health-care team wastes valuable time moving patients and equipment around to try to get to the next patient.

More information

Visit the American College of Emergency Physicians to learn when an ER visit is warranted.

SOURCES: Andrew Wilper, M.D., fellow, general internal medicine, Harvard Medic
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