CA: Hospital considers closing emergency room in Inglewood

AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 8/28/06 | AP

[Tarheel]

But when the community will not compensate the hospital, when that community is quick to blame the ER for all the problems that come from the nature of such a service, when the community will not secure the facility from marauding thugs...it can be shut down.

Not only is the taxpayer picking up the cost of the ILLEGALS health care we are sacrificing our own health care. With more ERs shutting down for the reasons you mentioned, the rest of us are left with limited emergency care when we are hit by that drunk driver. If you were here in NC that drunk driver is frequently an ILLEGAL with no insurance who has had multiple previous DUI.

[John Jorsett]

Since a hospital cannot turn them away under the anti-dumping laws, the next and most logical solution is to close the doors. I am sure the government at some level will try to make them reopen.

What they're doing is putting Prop 86 on the ballot. It would raise the cigarette tax by $2.60 a pack (bringing the cost of a pack to about $7), and use a big chunk of the money to "fund emergency room care" (i.e. give medical treatment to illegal immigrants).

[shankbear]

What a heck of a time to take up smoking.

[usmom]

Financially, ER's would be better off paying an MD to sit at the door and do triage for people walking in. Anything other than a non-emergency gets turned away, maybe with a list of urgen cares or MD's in the area that they could see. Anyone using the old 'ambulance' trick to get seen for a non-emrgency will be charged full cash price for the ambulance ride and ER care, with a paymetn plan worked out before they can be released if they say they can't pay. The problem is out of hand and needs to be dealt with in a strict sense. There are way to many losers, freeloaders and immigrants abusing the system.

I work in the health care field, and it seems that people that get 'free' health care (welfare programs, ER walk-ins, etc..) look upon health care as a form of entertainment. They may not have money to go out to eat or a movie, by-god, they can go to the doctor for free, so why not? I can't remember the last time I went to the doctor (since I actually have to pay), but I see people on welfare going at least once a week for everything and anything. they so much as sneeze and they go running in for an antibiotic (again- free to them, but not the taxpayers!). I mean, who goes to the doctor once a week, sometimes more? We're talking perfectly health-looking, prime of life people!

[Texas_Jarhead]

"It would be the ninth emergency room to close in Los Angeles County in recent years and the prospect could be "devastating," said Carol Meyer, director of the county's emergency medical services agency."

[newzjunkey]

"working-class city"? An obvious, loaded term from our MSM.

[utahagen]

It's my doctor's office of choice, for sure. I have insurance so I do not feel guilty going to the emergency room and paying (via insurance, co-pay) when I know most of the people in the emergency room are being treated for free. When I have an ailment such as pink eye, which is highly contagious and keeps me out of work, I can't wait three days for a doctor's appointment. So I go to the emergency room, where I'm seen within half an hour and I leave with a prescription. The emergency room folks are surprised and delighted when i take out my insurance card. I'll be damned if I'm going to miss three days of work waiting for a doctor's appointment when illegal aliens get immediate, free medical care.

[Chode]

OK Kalifornia, you can waste money on ILLEGALS or spend it on AMERICANS... NOW CHOOSE!!!

[Howard Jarvis Admirer]

Financially, I believe that hospitals would also be better off locating their emergency room facilities in Mexico - In Mexico, there is no federal EMTALA law and the hospitals can demand CIA (Cash In Advance) or proof of insurance from freeloaders the way the American doctors used to have the right to do. Ironically, Mexican citizens can use U.S. hospitals for free therefore U.S. hospitals in SoCal should move just over the Mexican border to be protected by Mexican law from freeloaders. This would also protect U.S. citizens from having their taxes and insurance costs increased by the hordes of illegals looking for freebies. Once all U.S. hospitals go bankrupt due to illegals, will Mexico have a monopoly on medical care for sick Americans?

[reformedliberal]

You are correct: it is their social life. Around here, they also bring the entire family, usually 3 generations worth.

The frequent flyers are known to the staff by their first name and our triage RN knows their birthdays and those of all the kids, as well.

However, I must say that we don't have 38k people in our entire county and the few times I have been in the ER as a patient, it has been almost empty. I have been in a couple of times to consult with an MD and while he was called away a few times, it was mostly to verify a diagnosis or write a script. But when we do have an accident or a fire or a tornado, they are jammed.

We have more MDs than we need, but they keep moving here. I should probably bite my tongue.

[Mamzelle]

In Jacksonville, Fla, there are docs "going bare" and the hospitals have to put up with it because they'd have no docs...I'm sure it's in their bylaws that a doc can't have privileges without malpractice insurance, but they're having to deal with realities.

If a hospital accepts ER-allocated money (like the recent pittance GW authorized--I think it was a mere billion, when LA County spends 300M dollars/year just for uncompensated ER care for illegals), they would of course have to have an ER. But you've got hospitals around the Disney area losing trauma qualifications because they can't get trauma surgeons--so they can't get the big allocations for trauma. Downgrading, as are some other trauma centers, which is also a kind of "closing the ER" scenario. Just a matter of degree and the way things look like they're going.

Fla is very litigious--

[Mamzelle]

There are ERs who do exactly as you suggest, and it is effective to a certain degree, at least psychologically. The patient sees the doc right away, the initial tests get ordered (and the lab work is part of the Big Wait). Usually it contents the patient for a while, he feels attended to, and lets the paperwork part begin immediately afterword. The patient sees the doc again later.

The patients go to the ER to see the doc, no matter how it's explained to him that it's the nurses and techs who do the treatment.

[stocksthatgoup]

two-thirds of the emergency room patients at Memorial and Centinela were treated for non-life-threatening conditions.

[osideplanner]

Can nurses do that? I've been to 3 ER's with neighhbor and family within the last year. All in SoCal. There are nurses doing triage, but it looks like a symptom check only, because no one seems to be turned away. You may however be put at the end of a long line.

[Shion]

Everyone else was ambulatory and looked fine to me.

I was in the hospital not long ago with a possible case of spinal meningitis (that was scary & spinal taps suck), turns out I just happened to have a high fever and a stiff neck at the same time, but the point is I was the ONLY English-speaking person in the crowded emergency room.

And the rest of them weren't speaking Japanese, if you get me....

I was also one of only three people who seemed to have any sort of real problem, the other one was an elderly man in cardiac arrest, the third was a teenager ejected from a rollover.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

that people that get 'free' health care (welfare programs, ER walk-ins, etc..) look upon health care as a form of entertainment. They may not have money to go out to eat or a movie, by-god, they can go to the doctor for free, so why not? I can't remember the last time I went to the doctor (since I actually have to pay), but I see people on welfare going at least once a week for everything and anything. they so much as sneeze and they go running in for an antibiotic (again- free to them, but not the taxpayers!). I mean, who goes to the doctor once a week, sometimes more? We're talking perfectly health-looking, prime of life people!

This can't be stressed enough. Lower class people (that actually consider Medicaid their health insurance program, no kidding) are constantly going to the ER for one thing or another.