http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/07/upenns-emergency-department.html Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:18:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/07/upenns-emergency-department.html#comment-86804 Anonymous Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:42:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2008/07/upenns-emergency-department.html#comment-86804 Their hospital sounds similar to my urban academic center. No one's intentionally stated that the goal is to shaft the urban poor in favor of the well-insured, but the policies are set up to accomplish the same thing. Patients routinely wait 48 hours in the ER for floor beds after being admitted (tying up ER beds while up to 50 patients sit in the waiting room) while direct transfers from suburban hospitals arrive on the floor. We constantly hear about how the hospital hopes to "improve the payor mix," i.e. that they'd rather take the well-insured suburban patients over the Medicaid/insured locals who come in via the ER. Their hospital sounds similar to my urban academic center. No one’s intentionally stated that the goal is to shaft the urban poor in favor of the well-insured, but the policies are set up to accomplish the same thing. Patients routinely wait 48 hours in the ER for floor beds after being admitted (tying up ER beds while up to 50 patients sit in the waiting room) while direct transfers from suburban hospitals arrive on the floor. We constantly hear about how the hospital hopes to “improve the payor mix,” i.e. that they’d rather take the well-insured suburban patients over the Medicaid/insured locals who come in via the ER.

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