Parkland hospital streamlines emergency room procedures | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Life/Travel: Health
Parkland hospital streamlines emergency room procedures09:44 PM CST on Tuesday, February 10, 2009
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
sjacobson@dallasnews.comParkland Memorial Hospital officials on Tuesday announced changes in emergency room procedures to improve care and reduce long waits.
Included is a new process for evaluating patients entering the ER, allowing them to confer immediately with a nurse or paramedic….
The new check-in process already is persuading patients to stay in the emergency room long enough to receive treatment.
Last month, Parkland said, 14 percent of ER patients left without seeing a physician, compared with the 24 percent who walked away in July.
A 14% LWBS rate would cost most ED groups their contract. Astonishing this is tolerated.
With such hospitals there is often little choice because they are used for primary care by people who have no insurance and can absolutely get no other care; I’ve been told cities like Houston have some good low cost clinics, while Dallas has none and other ERs near there back up as well. They really need a low cost/no cost clinic for nonemergency conditions as well. People with insurance who have been cautioned by other people generally choose other hospitals further away unless they’ve been in a car accident or have third degree burns.
Other news stories show that taxpayers recently voted to have Parkland massively expanded.
The higher the “self-pay” (ha) rate is, the higher the LWBS rate tolerated (IMO).