I saw these fake emergency rooms all over Texas in strip-malls. They shouldn't be allowed because they don't have the staff or resources to provide adequate care and delay life-saving interventional medicine.
Yeah, I'm going to disagree. I visited one just today while traveling, and it was a (figurative) life saver.
I deal with cyclic vomiting syndrome, and when an episode hits, about only thing that stops it is a promethazine injection. Last night's episode had me retching every 5 minutes, starting from around 8pm. I figured since the nearby urgent care centers were closed, I'd suck it up and puke til 8am. By around 3am I gave up and was looking into where the nearest ER was. It turned out to be an ED as described in the article.
Within 10 minutes of arriving, I was already through triage, and talking to a doctor. Within 20 minutes, I'd been poked, and another 20 until I was out the door. To top it off, I was expecting the $200 co-pay that comes from a normal ER visit, but was instead met with only a $75 co-pay.
I'm gonna say this is a huge win over the alternatives.
This is simply not true, at least for the ones I've been to. They typically contain beds, a lab, and their own OR suite. They actually have extra overhead since they are self contained and do not have other departments to lean on. They are located in areas far from their main hospital, essentially extending fast emergency service to those regions. If patients need additional services they are transferred to the main hospital.
This is exactly right. I live in a large TX metro area and we're inundated with these "ER in a Box" facilities. We also have at least three major full service hospitals in that 5 mile radius. The majority of these places are just a re-branding, with higher fees, of the older "Doc in box" model. Over and over again we hear stories of people visiting these places for fairly minor things, like stitches or back pain that are slapped with $2000 bills because they are "out of network" or coded as ER visits. If you have a real emergency, they call 911 and have you transported.
I deal with cyclic vomiting syndrome, and when an episode hits, about only thing that stops it is a promethazine injection. Last night's episode had me retching every 5 minutes, starting from around 8pm. I figured since the nearby urgent care centers were closed, I'd suck it up and puke til 8am. By around 3am I gave up and was looking into where the nearest ER was. It turned out to be an ED as described in the article.
Within 10 minutes of arriving, I was already through triage, and talking to a doctor. Within 20 minutes, I'd been poked, and another 20 until I was out the door. To top it off, I was expecting the $200 co-pay that comes from a normal ER visit, but was instead met with only a $75 co-pay.
I'm gonna say this is a huge win over the alternatives.