Emergency Visit

In one year, 2008 to 2009, emergency room visits in the US rose from 128.m to 136m-the largest increase recorded since national ER counts began in the 1990’s. This has prompted discussion over ER costs, where risks of making a wrong snap decision become higher malpractice rates.  This report, however, doesn’t say (because it isn’t known) how many of those visits were unnecessary, and might have been resolved through a telemedicine service in the home or at a convenient site.  Imagine a distressed chemotherapy patient in an ER’s waiting room when the place is full of flu sufferers.   Healthcare as a distributed network really ought to start with the ER.         MORE

Image Credit: Michael Macor / The Chronicle