Flea points out that non-urgent cases pays the bills:
And finally, there is the bottom line. I congratulate the authors for recognizing the financial pressures on ED’s to see non-emergently ill patients. I hasten to point out, however, that this is an explanation, not an excuse.
The IOM report confirms what I have long suspected. The ED’s themselves are not motivated to fix the fundamental problem of over-use of emergency services. To the contrary, they are under fiscal pressure to welcome such over-use.