Getting Sick, Bad for Your Health

This should scare you. A lot.

A two-year study by the Institute of Medicine finds that emergency rooms across the nation are ill-equipped of both (wo)man and machine to handle the glut of trauma cases that come through their sliding glass doors every day. Someone is turned away from emergency care every second of every day of the year. All you can do is hope that someone isn't you!

This NPR story elaborates.

Some of the most startling findings:

• You could be waiting 2 days to be admitted from the ER to a hospital bed.
  
  
• Some ambulatory services get you there faster than others. Chances of survival therefore vary greatly depending on severity of injury and...luck I guess?
  
  
• Due to the exorbitant costs of malpractice insurance and the rise of ER patients who do not have insurance and can't pay their bills, specialists are in short supply. So if, say, you bump your noggin and need a neurosurgeon consult, all you can do is pray one is hanging out in your ER.
  

So drink your OJ, keep exercising, no high-risk behaviors (no bungee jumping!), and cross your fingers that you stay out of the ER until conditions improve. Like when we're 80.