Emergency Rooms Are Overwhelmed & What Can Be Done

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Emergency rooms across the United States are stretched beyond their limits. The fault lies with many factors, and some of these are unfortunately hard to address, such as lack of funding and limited staff. Ultimately, hospitals are doing their best to create the infrastructure that can welcome and care for their patients, but there are physical limitations that are virtually immovable for the time being. 

As a result, by 2024, more than 5% of ER patients had to wait over 24 hours to get a hospital bed when they got to the ER. There’s no denying that long boarding times seriously increase patient safety risks, which means that the longer emergency care is delayed, the higher the health risks are. 

While this is worrying, a high percentage of ER patients do not have emergency healthcare needs when they visit the ER. In fact, 60% of ER visits are non-urgent and even potentially unnecessary. However, it would be unfair to blame patients for ER utilization. In many cases, people have no other choice but to turn up to the ER for their health concerns. 

Seeking Medical Opinion Wherever You Are

One way to cut down on unnecessary emergency room visits is to make it easier for people to get medical advice early, before their symptoms get worse and start worrying them. Telehealth has flipped the script on how people get access to doctors. It enables working adults and those who can’t travel for an appointment to speak with a qualified doctor, wherever they are.

For those of us who are unsure if a symptom is just a minor annoyance or something more pressing, getting that early guidance can be a game-changer when it comes to avoiding ER overcrowding. Having the option to schedule a virtual consultation removes all the uncertainty and guesswork. This means that nobody needs to go to the ER for non-urgent matters, because help is readily available where they are. 

Talking to a Doctor Outside Working Hours

For many Americans, the biggest hurdle to getting healthcare is time. Doctor offices tend to open for consultation during typical business working hours, which happens to coincide with everyone else’s work schedules. As a result, medical appointments are often something that falls between the gaps. So symptoms that should be taken seriously often get put off simply because there just isn’t any decent time slot to squeeze in a visit. Even if the condition isn’t serious per se, the symptoms can appear worrying or can develop in an alarming way, which means that they rapidly reach the point when an ER visit feels suitable. 

Access to after hours medical care could help change this. This can gives individual the opportunity to pick up the phone and talk to a professional at any time of the day or night, which means they can tackle health worries as they come up, rather than waiting till their schedule finally clears up. 

That makes a huge difference: 

• Earlier diagnosis
• Quicker treatment
• Fast response

It also reduces the chances of people ending up in the emergency room because there’s no time slot available to see a doctor, rather than because their health actually needs it.

As a society, we need to give people the tools to stop using ER as their regular medical checkups, if we’re going to help build a more reliable ER structure for all.