And I was thinking about her comment. (Because I do care.) I still don't like the way the article is written, specifically the stuff about mental illness and chemical abuse. Here's my thoughts:
- The ER employee in question from Amanda's comment is a surgical technician and anyone requiring surgical care costs a lot of money.
- Since surgery is expensive, it requires fewer visits to rack up a $1,000,000 bill. Although it is still quite impressive.
- The article said 9 patients made 2,678 visits to the ER, and the average ER visit is $1000.
- $3,000,000 divided by 2,678 is $1,120
- The average cost for these people was only slightly higher than the average cost per visit of the general population so we can assume they aren't having too many surgeries.
- 2,678 divided by nine is approximately 298 visits per person.
- 298 visits in six years is roughly one visit per week. What the hell? Were they ever admitted or did they just go home and come back?
- If there's any other way to get medical care other than an Emergency Room, it's almost always my choice. I'm assuming that's true of the general population who like to wait 20 minutes for the doctor in a quiet waiting room rather than 2 hours in an ER with a puking kid and a drunk guy.
- Since the people in this study are accessing medical care in the ER every week, it's reasonable to ask if there is anywhere else for the to access such care.
So, I go back to my original point. Minnesota ranks 10th in the country in doctors per capita. Texas ranks 42nd. (Yes I'm a nerd. Check here.) It would be interesting to see how many visits the top nine ER users in Minnesota have made and what their costs were. Maybe we could help Texas. Or maybe every state has 9 people who go to the ER all the time and we shouldn't focus on them when looking at how to make services more cost effective. Maybe we should start with a group that's easier to serve, like people who go to the ER frequently but would go to a clinic if they had one.
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