Spokane7
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June 14, 2010 in City
Hospitals look for options as more use ER as instant appointment
Dawn Scott holds her 4-month-old daughter Kailee as Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center Pediatric Emergency Center nurse Cassandra Dubbels does an evaluation Wednesday. Scott brought her baby to the emergency room because the child was having breathing problems caused by a respiratory infection.
(Full-size photo)
Emergency rooms in Spokane are busier than ever as annual visits to the four main hospitals have topped 230,000.
What’s driving the numbers? Though the swell of uninsured and poor people in waiting rooms is certainly a cause, it’s not so simple.
A growing shortage of primary doctors, sicker people, diabetics, the mentally ill left to fend for themselves, and more elderly all play a role. And so does this: an impatient group of patients. Many people have been conditioned to expect immediate results and are unwilling to wait to see a doctor for mild maladies. They go to the hospital instead.
A report last month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found similar trends across the country. Health insurance coverage or a lack thereof was not associated with emergency room patients being triaged as nonurgent.
Emergency rooms will treat about 120 million people this year.
Dawn and Eric Scott recently took their 4-month-old daughter Kailee to the emergency room at Sacred Heart. She had already spent five days in the hospital to fight a stubborn respiratory virus that commonly sickens infants.
When baby Kailee seemed to labor with her breathing, the parents brought her back.
“This has been hard to get over,” Dawn Scott said.
Kailee is enrolled in Washington state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, subsidized coverage that has helped parents afford health care for their children.
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Providence Holy Family Hospital are in the early stages of a program to curb the rising use of emergency care.
Just 1 in 3 of those 120 million visits this year will be to treat an injury.
The hospitals would attempt to link emergency room patients who need primary care or other services with family medicine clinics in the hope of avoiding expensive nonemergency hospital visits.
Asking physicians to leave appointment times open for the possibility of such a referral is a sacrifice, acknowledged Elaine Couture, chief executive of Sacred Heart and Holy Family.
As an example, Couture spoke of helping people manage diabetes instead of waiting for them to reach an acute phase where emergency care and hospitalization become necessary.
“Everyone realizes the need to move away from the ER being the default provider,” she said.
It’s not just medical clinics that need to participate. Social service agencies and organizations have been asked to help.
Cathy Simchuk, vice president of trauma care for Sacred Heart and Holy Family, said such a broad collaboration needs to emphasize a set of communitywide health offerings that range from ensuring children have enough to eat for lunch during the summer months to helping the homeless sleep warm during the depths of winter.
Federal health care reform is expected to help at least some of the problems facing emergency rooms.
The major changes are still three to four years away, including the aim of insuring 94 percent of Americans. If realized, such insurance reforms would translate to 30,000 more people in Spokane County gaining insurance, said Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, chief executive of Providence Health Care.
The number of uninsured in the county has reached 12.8 percent. It does not include those covered by Medicaid and Medicare.
About half of the uninsured are ages 18 to 34. A provision that allows 19- to 26-year-olds to remain on their parents’ coverage plans kicks in this year.
Some say the possibility of many more people attaining insurance coinciding with a deepening shortage of primary care doctors could be problematic. Emergency room care has changed in Spokane during the past two years. Sacred Heart is now the busiest and boasts its status as the only major trauma center in the county.
Deaconess Medical Center surrendered its similar status last year in the wake of Sacred Heart buoying its offerings and hours.
Yet Deaconess, along with Valley Hospital and Medical Center, continues to see about the same number of emergency room patients for treatment, said spokeswoman Christine Varela.
The hospital has looked at improving its emergency department as part of a larger strategy to upgrade buildings and equipment.
Sacred Heart is drawing up construction plans that should add rooms to its ER.
Parishes giving $1.5 million toward settling sex cases 
ZagChuck on June 14 at 3:34 a.m.
@ Princeadam.
Several things you say are incomplete. First, people that want to choose doctors, healthcare plans and the like will become increasingly unable to do so because of the new law just signed.
The new law just signed will make the price of medical care go up
The new healthcare law just signed will decrease the amount of doctors even further.
The health care bill will cost all taxpayers more money than we were spending on healthcare to begin with. (higher taxes and higher medical bills)
The new healthcare bill will also increase the cost of insurance for those that pay for it themselves. (insurance companies forced to cover more people )
The new health care bill will also cause large companies to drop their insurance coverage completely. (this is already happening)
Over 65% of the people were against the bill, when it was signed, but our senators Murray and Cantwell voted for it anyway.
We have the chance to remove her from office this year, and replace her with someone who will listen to the people they are elected to represent.
As for your appreciation of Obama, I’m not sure what you think he has accomplished. Please tell us what he has done that deserves applause.
He has already spent more money than Bush and Clinton combined. He has not fulfilled one single campaign promise. He has already taken more vacation in the first 18 months than Bush did in his first 3years.
Let’s kick out Patty Murray in November and replace her with Clint Didier, Then we can focus on replacing Obama in 2012 with someone who is competent.
Diana on June 14 at 6:10 a.m.
ZagChuck replied to a spambot.
Anyway, do you have anything other than the oft-repeated , debunked bagger/Fox talking points?
I’ve been waiting a long time to hear the teaparty/Republican solution to the health care crisis. What is it? I’m all ears.
lewis8457 on June 14 at 6:51 a.m.
In Portland the Good Samaritan hospital has what they call convenient care it was right next to the ER but it was for non-emergency use.
I loved it there they took care of me when I got bit by a Northern California brown spider.
spokanada on June 14 at 9:24 a.m.
hahahaha, Zag chuck is arguing with a spambot. That just made my day! Keep up the good work chucky.
I bet you talked back to Sarah Palin when “she” called you and several million others before the 2008 election.
mikeln on June 14 at 10:12 a.m.
The new healthcare Obama and his friends at the private health insurance companies gave us is nothing more than bunk. The only things that will help the consumer will disapear before they are implemented years from now. We need to take the profit out of health care. People are complaining about their choice of doctors but will let some insurance executive have the final say on their healthcare. We could self insure at about a dollor a day per person if we could keep our lawmakers from takeing the money for their political gains. We, as americans need to be aware of the brain washing takeing place, not only in our government but by powerfull corporations as well.
flutieflakes on June 14 at 11:18 a.m.
Don’t know whose ass you pulled that 65% opposition figure out of; as far as I can tell, the March polling averages out to about 43% in favor and 46% opposed. Even Rasmussen, who always skew their polls towards the conservative side, showed only 54% opposition in March.
Dazzeetrader11 on June 14 at 12:26 p.m.
This article is conjectural….no data for Spokane is offered….just don’t believe this on the author’s “say-so”. This is the beginning and furtherance of the campaign for a 4 year medical school the business community floated in this newpaper last week. I wish the authors would show their sources. Untill this happens, all these statements are simply opinions taken from other opinions.
And the first post is only partially a bot. Doen’t matter when he’s floating political Obama ideas…mixed with a goofy link. Chuck’s right on many things.
This author’s simply reinforcing the Editor’s ideas. We don’t need Obamacare and it’s clear that even with the extra expenses of the program, not much will change…just taxpayers’ money will be more heavily taxed. If anything, this article is just propaganda. The hospital spokesman “doom and gloom” is self serving. They want your money. Ever asked yourselves why Sacred Heart keeps building buildings? Walk through sometime…lots of Administrators and little service for what the purpose was.
And who pays for those buildings? Ever wonder why your bills are so high? Look at your bill sometime. Aspirin is roughly a 10 cent cost. ..unitl the pharmacy tech takes it to and from the pharmacy…where it’s got lots of paperwork, clerks fielding the order and the Administration of the pharmacy that must be paid as well. Your 10 cent aspirin turns in to a $10 aspirin.
Back to thte article though…propaganda for GIS to figure out a campaign to make you believe a new med school is absolutely necessary or the system will crash. Don’t be taken in. It won’t unless you’re taxed to smithereens…and believe you got a good deal.
spokanada on June 14 at 1:19 p.m.
Oh Daisy,
The first post was done by a spammer. How can we take you serious when you ignote the obvious?
spokanada on June 14 at 3:19 p.m.
*ignore*
Dazzeetrader11 on June 14 at 4:53 p.m.
Sorry spokanada…there was a message in the first post…before the goofy link. Chuck responded and I cannot argue with his post.
Obviously you libs try to degrade the person posting instead of directly responding to his post. Typical but shallow.
And Sarah isn’t stupid or all bad because Olberman and Rachel says so.
I don’t think she speaks well and some of ideas don’t quite synch.. Nonetheless, she does have some good ideas that should be supported in my opinion. Intelligent people actually do read the whole work and weed out the garbage. WHy don’t you do 2 things.
1. Actually READ what she says..or what Chuck says.
2. Respond to the post without attacking the person who writes the post.
Then there can be a discussion worth something.
jackchoice on June 14 at 7:22 p.m.
Medicare wlil continue to get more costly for us consumers as well as the medicare supplement one gets to supplement what medicare a and b wont pay.
As they cut, more and more Doctors could stop accepting medicare amounts.
Also raised the part B medicare cost, forced me to find a new medicare supplemental insurance coverage. went with national Medicare Supplements, and that saved me enough money to make up for the increase in other cost. at
www.nationalmedicaresupplements.com
medicare supplemental insurance medigap seniors insurance part d drug coverage medicare a and b, annuities rates Guide for medigap
And American Seniors Insurance as well, thye have good infoamtion on medicare supplement changes.
www.americanseniors.com
Dazzeetrader11 on June 14 at 10:58 p.m.
Good info jack. It’ll get much worse with Obamacare. He really doesn’t care about Seniors. He cares about socialized medicine….it’s his centerpiece. This will cost the taxpayers trillions if it’s allowed to sit like he wants. November is the most important vote I can imagine. If the red team is voted in, it’ll be a slow process but much…not all…of Obamacare will be stopped dead in it’s tracks. This, if it happens will be his first signal that he won’t be re relected.
Can’t afford socialism and it’s contrary to Americans….most anyway.
Diana on June 15 at 9:21 a.m.
Medicare is socialism, DAISY!
Teseract on September 25 at 3:25 p.m.
Perhaps if the urgent care centers in Spokane were open past 8pm at night, and weren’t closed for major holidays?
I know my family and myself wouldn’t be making trips to the ER with the hideously expensive co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance nearly as often if care was available when we need it.
Set up a 24/7 urgent care center, make sure there’s a nearby pharmacy open 24/7 as well, and most people with insurance would use that instead of sitting in the ER waiting room for 3-4 hours.
Spokane still has this small town mentality where business owners assume everyone gets up at 6am, is off work at 5pm and goes to bed at 10pm. They need to figure out that’s not how the world is anymore.
jackchoice on October 04 at 4:38 p.m.
medicare and medicare supplements, going to get more expensive, that is for sure
Medicare supplement insurance
http://medicaresupplementnews.com/