[GabrielF00]

I'm curious what percentage of people who come into an ER have routine problems, but are being sent to the ER because other components of the health care system either don't want to deal with them (because of lack of insurance, or other reasons) or are being overly cautious and advising them to go to the ER when it isn't necessary.

I've had two experiences when I was told to go to the ER even though it was completely unnecessary. Once I had a very painful hemorrhoid. I called the nurse's line for my insurance company and they told me to go to the ER immediately. This freaked me out, since I figured it was a minor (albeit painful) issue, so I called a doctor who was a friend of the family. He told me to just go to a walk-in clinic the next day (I didn't have a regular PCP) and that they might give me a referral to a surgeon, but most likely they would let it heal on its own.

A second time, I was out of state for the summer and needed a refill for a prescription. My doctor's office told me to go to a local ER.

I would imagine that having to handle both emergencies and also routine nonsense that should be handled elsewhere has got to be really grinding on an emergency department.

[robbiep]

I am a current ED/A&E/ER Doc (in Australia). It's one of my 5 3 month first year terms. About 50% of presentations are for things that don't need to come through ed. Phone lines always say come I to ed because it is a get-out-of-jail. If they say carry on and you get hurt, they get sued. And it is near-impossible to do a proper consult with someone over the phone.

Having said that the Australian health system is so radically different to that of the US (for the better) that very little in the above article applies to my working conditions