Doctors and hospitals are reporting an increase in the number of emergency room visits since Obamcare took effect in Januray.
Nearly half of American ER doctors responding to a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians said they’ve seen more patients in their emergency rooms since Jan. 1, and nearly 90 percent expect those visits to rise in the next three years.
Norton Hospital’s ER in Louisville, Kentucky has converted a waiting room into exam rooms because of an additional 100 patients per month — a 12 percent increase — since January, The Courieur-Journal reports. Longer wait times have become the norm.
Staffers at the emergency room at Norton Hospital assert that many of their patients are not, in fact, facing emergencies but are at the ER because they don’t know about primary care. “We’re seeing patients who probably should be seen at our [immediate-care centers],” said Lewis Perkins, the hospital’s vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer. “And we’re seeing this across the system.”
ER patients should probably get used to the wait.