According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 130 million patients visited emergency rooms in 2012. Many of those patients didn’t have health insurance, and used ERs for their basic and urgent medical needs.
While Healthcare Reform will help make affordable insurance more accessible, there’s still the downstream part to the problem: the nation doesn’t have enough primary care doctors to see all these patients (the ones trained to deal with the vast majority of patient health issues).
If you need urgent medical attention and can’t find a primary care doctor, or your doctor is booked solid for 3 months, “who you gonna call?”
Ghos – I Mean – Shortage Busters: Just How Short Are We? By the year 2020, the United States will face a shortage of primary care providers that will have been building for nearly 40 years. According to Forbes.com, the nation may have 45,000 fewer physicians than it needs to care for the population.
That’s a lot of “doctor not available” messages.
So it’s no wonder that some patients have headed to the ERs where they can’t be turned away, but which were designed to render expensive emergency care, not wellness-maintaining health care.
Effects Of ER Overcrowding Emergency events are statistically rare, so ERs were created to handle low numbers of patients with dangerous, advanced, or severe medical problems needing immediate treatment.
When patients with doctor access problems and “regular” needs come in, the ERs become overburdened with volume. Periodically, this means they get “full” or “closed” and have to send ambulances away to other hospitals. This can delay the care that emergency patients require.
Even if the ERs don’t close, high patient volumes can result in long waits, while the more severe cases are seen, stabilized, and treated first. The ERs have to focus on what needs addressing right now, and quickly seeing, treating, and sending home patients who don’t need emergency care.
And, yes, having this 24-hour, 365 days a year access comes at a cost. ER copays are several times higher, and ER care is often 10 times more costly than regular office visits. Since ERs may know nothing about a new patient, they have to do more costly, invasive tests to make sure they aren’t “missing anything” that could make someone drop dead minutes after walking out the door.
So What’s A Person To Do? Enter: Urgent Care centers.
Urgent Care centers are staffed and equipped to render medical care on short notice, but because they leave the life-threatening conditions to the ER, they can see you much quicker, with wait times in minutes rather than hours.
Their cost of care is much lower, since even urgent medical matters are rarely life-threatening, and don’t require expensive imaging or similar testing.
Most important of all, our own Woodbridge Walk-In urgent care center (as well as our other Family Care Centers urgent care sites) can connect you to local primary care doctors if you don’t have one. So instead of starting from scratch every time you get seen, you can establish with a regular physician who knows you, and can advise you on your health over time, about things that matter for a lifetime.
Dr. Bunten is originally from Huntington Beach, CA. He attended high school in Tokyo, Japan, went to college at UC San Diego and then to medical school in the Midwest. He returned home to California for residency training in Family Medicine at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. His immediate family all reside in Huntington Beach.
Dr Fishbein has been in the practice of family medicine for over 35 years in Irvine. He received his undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University, medical degree from Chicago Medical School, and completed his family medicine residency at Memorial Hospital of Long Beach.
Dr. Kim is the Medical Director of Family Care Centers, Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Hoag Hospital, and a recipient of the Physicians of Excellence award from the Orange County Medical Association. He is Board Certified in Family Medicine, and has been practicing in our community for over 20 years.
Dr. Memon is a board certified Family Medicine physician and recently completed her fellowship in Geriatrics at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center. She attended Saint George’s University, School of Medicine and completed her residency at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. Her interest in medicine started at an early age and has since evolved into a passionate career.
Dr. Gina Nguyen obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at UC Irvine where she graduated Suma Cum Laude. She went to USC Keck School of Medicine, and returned to UC Irvine for a Family Medicine Residency. Since 2005, she worked at Kaiser Permanente, VNCOC, and Family Care Center Urgent Care.
Dr. Williams is Board Certified in Family Medicine and Sports Medicine. He is a native to Orange County and returned home after completing his medical degree at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. After completing his residency in family practice he successfully completed a fellowship in sports medicine.
Dr. Hye Lee is a board-certified Family Practice Physician, affiliated with the American Osteopathic Association and the American College of Osteopathic Family Practice.She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at UC Riverside and earned her medical degree from Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center. Afterward, she did her internship at Downey Regional Medical Center in California and has been a primary care physician since 2005.
Dr. Coyne is a board certified family practice physician and a California native. He completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA before earning his medical degree at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Dr Coyne spent 6 years in the US Air Force at Andrews and Luke Air Force bases, eventually separating as a Major. He enjoys working with patients of all ages.”
Dr. Jay Friehling is a Family Practice physician who has worked in Orange County since 1981. Born in Florida, he received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and then earned a Medical Degree at the New York Medical College.” His healthcare interests include Diabetes, Geriatric Care, and Hospice Care.
Dr. Jennifer Shoquist is board certified in Family Medicine. Her special interest is woman’s health and her practice accepts patients from 6 years old to seniors. Dr. Shoquist received her M.D. degree at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston in Houston, Texas, and did her residency with Memorial Family Practice at memorial Southwest Hospital in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Tom is a board certified family medicine physician and native Californian. He received his bachelors of science with great distinction in biochemistry and honors in chemistry. Dr. Tom was awarded a Regents Scholarship to attend medical school at UC Irvine.
Dr. Yan attended Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her Family Practice residency at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California. She joined Family Care Center in 2001. She chose Family Practice because she enjoys working with a wide variety of people and because it provides a unique opportunity for continuing care.
Share Your Valuable Thought