Hospital Emergency Departments in Crisis

This research examines the crisis affecting the delivery of emergency health care services in the United States in the 1990s. The current status of the health care system and its effects on emergency care is examined, and the probable effects of health care reform on emergency health care are considered.

In the United States in 1994, health care insurance is unattainable for some people and unaffordable for millions of others (Weil, 1994, pp. 515). The same factors that cause health care insurance to be either unattainable or unaffordable also results in delays for the people affected in seeking necessary health care services (Lee, 1993, p. 2784). A typical outcome for such people is that they finally seek emergency medical care when their health conditions have degenerated to the point where such conditions can no longer be ignored.

The important outcomes of the combination of delaying needed health care services and then obtaining those services through a hospital emergency department relate to patient health, health care costs, and the efficient functioning of emergency care departments. First, the health of individuals exhibiting such behaviors is compromised (Franks, Clancy, Gold, and Nutting, 1993, pp. 12951299). Second, the costs for the health care services provided are far higher than they otherwise would have been (Lee, 1993, p. 2784). Third, hospital e

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s constituting an innovation in the approach to health care insurance. Any insurance innovation that extended health care insurance coverage to substantially more people would ease the problems associated with the use of hospital emergency departments as primary care centers by the uninsured. With respect to delivery system reorganization, the principal generic proposals are to: (1) establish spending targets for health services, an action that, in effect, would create schedules of fees for services that would be negotiated between health care funders and health care providers (Rovner, 1991a, p. 1450; Rovner, 1991c, pp. 15071509); (2) establish a national network community health centers to deliver health care services to lowincome individuals (Rovner, 1991c, pp. 15071509); and (3) both limit the conditions under which malpractice claims may be lodged against health care providers, and cap the level of malpractice awards (Rovner, 1991c, pp. 15071509). The proposal to establish community health centers affects the concept of universality as well as constituting a reorganization of the health care delivery system. Effective reorganization of the health care system would ease the pressures on hospital emergency departments. W
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Services Health, Hillary Clinton, health care, Clinton Administration, Stern Fielding, Medical Association, Statement United, Budget Office, Statistics Canada, Emergency Services, Bureau Census, care insurance, health care insurance, hospital emergency, health care services, care services, hospital emergency departments, care reform, health care reform, emergency departments, primary care, care centers, associated hospital, departments primary, associated hospital emergency,
Approximate Word count = 4489
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)