Emergency Rx

A trip to the emergency room with my daughter last week reminded me once again of the limitations to our health care system--the supposed best in the world.

The waiting room that night was crowded with at least 50 patients. Many of us sat for 3 hours before a nurse took us to the back--casually directing us to treatment rooms as if we were lolling about on a summer night. Hardly the atmosphere of emergency medicine. What most of us needed instead, I realized, was urgent care.

But the urgent care clinics in Durham were closed, so the only remaining option was the emergency room. Very different from our experience in Ireland 4 years ago, when my mother needed a doctor after 5:00 pm. Easy, it turned out. The neighbor's clinic was open 24 hours, and the night shift was ready for us when we arrived. Low key and inexpensive, the treatment met the need.

You'd think that a nation like ours that has developed so many medical miracles and treatments would have figured out how to deliver these more effectively. But we're locked in by old models of inefficiency and waste, hampered by the special interests of providers and insurers.

Looking for ways to cut the costs of American medicine? The emergency room is one place to start.