Although it seems incredibly gruesome, a recent study found that heart patients have to wait the longest to receive assistance in the emergency room. Twenty-five percent of the time, heart patients were forced to wait at least an hour before someone came to their aid. Considering that the chances of survival from a heart attack go down exponentially the longer you wait for treatment, this is definitely cause for concern.
The study was conducted over a period of seven years, from 1997 to 2004. They found that during this time period, visits to the emergency room increased overall and most patients were forced to wait. In fact, over the length of the study, they found that overall wait times were increased by thirty-five percent for all patients.
In increasingly busier emergency rooms, nurses are forced to triage patients. Those who are deemed to be near death can expect to wait at least fourteen minutes to get treatment. For some reason however, heart attack patients are generally not deemed to be in this group. Overall, heart attack patients had to wait 150% longer for care by 2004 than they did in 1997. At least one in every four patients was waiting at least an hour for treatment by the time the study concluded.
Andrew Wilper was the lead author of the study and currently works as an internist at Cambridge Health Alliance. He commented, “The percent changes are unsettling. This is something that affects all of us. It means prolonged pain and suffering, and very possibly, people who arrive with time-sensitive illnesses are getting hurt.
Heart attack patients in rural areas have the best luck of getting quick care. In an interesting twist, the study also found that white men are more likely to get care faster than other racial groups. Black patients waited an astounding thirteen percent longer than Hispanic patients, who in turn waited longer than fourteen percent than white people. Unfortunately, the study did not track any mortality rates for those who were forced to endure an extended wait before receiving treatment.
Many experts are viewing this study as a report card on the state of emergency rooms, and seeing the need that something needs to be done to ensure that patient’s lives are not endangered by overcrowding. Arthur Kellerman, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta stated, “We have a severe problem in this country and we have to deal with it. These are the waiting times that matter. This is not simply an inconvenience or an indignity. This is a threat to people’s lives.”
In fact, the situation appears to be so bad that some experts are recommending completely avoiding the ER altogether. Instead, they recommend contacting your regular doctor in an emergency.
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