Research has shown that more than half of all emergency room visits in the US are for non-emergencies. The trend to use the emergency room as if it were a doctor’s office is wasteful in several ways. First of all, it wastes money. The cost of seeing a doctor in the emergency room can be three times more than seeing a doctor in his office. Time is also wasted while the person who is ill waits his turn to be seen by a physician. Contrary to what many people seem to believe, patients are not seen on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Not even close. An emergency room is designed to see the most critical patients first, and everyone that comes through the doors of the emergency room goes through ‘triage’, French for sorting. The less urgent the case, the longer patient will wait. According to statistics the average wait in an emergency room is about 2 hours.
Emergency room physicians like Josyann Abisaab urge people to only come to the emergency room if a real emergency arises which requires urgent care. Otherwise schedule an appointment with a primary care physician who will be glad to see you at a scheduled time and for a reasonable price.
