Comments on: Escambia Health Figures: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 06:23:20 +0000

@ John, the problem isn’t necessarily “federal and state laws,” Those laws ONLY state that if a person comes to an ER with a MEDICAL EMERGENCY that they must be treated. ALL hospitals have the ability to do what is called a Medical Screening Exam (MSE) which is an exam done by qualified medical personnel that has the ability to determine either “this is an emergency” or “this isn’t an emergency.” If it is determined to not be a medical emergency, the hospital has the ability to send the patient out the door, without treatment and without highly priced medical care that can be provided by an Urgent Care center or the patients Primary Care provider. The problem is that MOST facilities do not utilize this MSE screening the way it should be used. A lot of facilities only pre-warn the patient that if they choose to stay for treatment that their medical insurance “may not pay for the visit.” The problem there is that the majority of the people who DO receive an MSE screening choose to stay for treatment anyway, meaning that MAY be personally billed for the visit but most of them don’t care because they aren’t planning on paying the bill anyway. I think an MSE screening that determines that the visit is not of an emergent nature should be sent out regardless of whether the patient WANTS to stay or not. I know this may sound cold, I don’t intend it that way, but a lot of people are using the Emergency Rooms in our area as their Primary Cares instead of for their intended purpose……Emergencies.

By: Aimee H.

Aimee H. — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 04:47:18 +0000

Unfortunately, most of these proposed solutions won’t fix our problems. We live in a society where demands are met to appease anyone. Most of the abuse of the emergency room isn’t due to a lack of education, it’s due to an increase of ignorance. A large portion of society is out for what they want as soon as they want it, and most of the time the wants are for narcotics. The system is abused beyond measure and now health care workers are being taught to worry more about customer service and giving the abusers everything the demand than the quality of care. Those of us in health care could trade our medical education in for a hospitality degree and most wouldn’t know the difference because they tell us how to care for them medically anyway.

By: Lacy

Lacy — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 01:14:37 +0000

A large majority of the time the abuse of the emergency facilities occurs specifically because the persons know that they won’t be asked to pay up front. And they have to pay a small ($3) copay at their primary care doctors office. I’ve been told before that they come to the emergency room just because “I didn’t want to have to pay anything.” And they are dressed in designer clothes, carrying designer purses, have smart phones, lots of nice jewelry…those people have the mindset that we need to change. The truly needy, that can’t afford it…there are clinics and healthcare programs in place to help them.

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:35:49 +0000

And Rick Scott wants to keep Florida from receiving healthcare benefits, from the Federal govt. because of politics….Typical selfishness of Republicans….

By: John

John — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 11:35:58 +0000

Regarding the ( misuse of emergency facilities ) that’s only because the federal and state laws the ER can’t turn people away and people know this. If you have a in grown toe nail you should be turned away.

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 11:06:28 +0000

If you don’t have a good paying job you can’t eat properly or afford your medicine. You don’t go to the dentist or the doctor because you can’t afford it. Just a thought……