Opinion
To take strain off EDs, put money into primary care, mental health services
LETTER — Posted March 5, 2007
Regarding "Crisis for nation's EDs" (Editorial, Jan. 15): As anyone who has practiced or received care in an emergency room knows, the U.S. emergency medical system is indeed at the breaking point and surely would fail us in the event of a mass casualty terrorist attack.
The overwhelming demand on emergency departments, as your editorial acknowledges, stems largely from problems of underinsurance and poor access to primary or mental health care. Yet your proposed solutions would bolster the emergency specialty work force, ensure payment for emergency services and protect emergency doctors from liability.
Such shortsighted prescriptions would only perpetuate our reliance on a broken emergency system that is ill-equipped to deliver the mental health and primary care services so many of its patients need.
An obvious prerequisite for strengthening our emergency system is to strengthen our primary care and mental health systems, so that patients who don't need emergency care can receive the care they need outside of emergency rooms.
Joshua J. Fenton, MD, MPH, Sacramento, Calif.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/03/05/edlt0305.htm.
