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Between 1993 and 2003, there was a 14% decrease in the number of emergency departments in the United States. During that same period, however, emergency room visits increased by over 26% from 90.3 million to 113.9 million. This combination of circumstances has lead to crowded emergency rooms throughout the country.

The figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 15% of the visits were classified as emergencies (treatment required within 15 minutes), 35% were urgent (treatment required within 1 hour), and 13% as non-urgent. While children had the highest rate of emergency department (ED) visits, the greatest rate increase was among adults. Those 65 and older had an ED visit rate increase of 26% in the past ten years.

In a press release, Dr. Robert Suter, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, stated: "As Americaís elderly population continues to grow, we expect to see even more elderly patients in the coming years." Dr. Suter also expressed concern that proposed Medicare cuts will force more and more elderly patients to seek medical care at their local emergency department.

Although stories of dramatic weight-loss results associated with various surgical procedures have been widely publicized, studies indicate that patients would be wise to consider the potentially serious risks of these procedures more carefully. In 2004, 145,000 bariatric procedures were performed at an average cost of $25,000 each ($3.5 billion). Complications, however, may not only increase that cost to $100,000 but, also, leave the patient with very serious medical problems in addition to their obesity.

In the case of bariatric surgery, for example, one new study reports that almost 20% of the patients experienced complications after surgery. For approximately 5% of the patients, the complications were serious (including heart attacks, strokes, and severe high blood pressure). Another recent study reported a mortality rate (within 30 days of surgery) for gastric bypass surgery at .5% (1 in 200) which is higher than the death rate associated with coronary angioplasty..

Personal Injury & Side Effects News

Despite the claim by government officials that an effective plan for dealing with possible bird flu (or other) pandemic will be completed by the end of the summer, several experts have accused the Bush administration of moving far too slowly. They are also calling plans to stockpile antiviral drugs inadequate.

Lawmakers have been told that the possibility of bird flu mutating into a form that is capable of human-to-human transmission is extremely alarming since humans lack immunity to the disease. There is additional concern that the U.S. stockpile of drugs is terribly inadequate. While Britain and France have ordered enough doses of the drug Tamiflu to treat 25% of their populations, the United States has a stockpile of only 2.3 million doses which would only treat less than 1% of the population. The drug, which may lessen the severity of the disease if taken wit 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, however, is not a cure and no study has shown that it improves a personís chances of survival. An experimental bird flu vaccine is currently under development at the National Institutes of Health and the results of safety and effectiveness trials are expected soon.

In a related story, Nature Magazine reported this week that up to half of the pig population in some areas of Indonesia may be infected with bird flu (H5N1 virus) but without causing symptoms. Experts fear that infected pigs pose a greater threat than poultry of spreading the disease to humans. Testing done on pigs in both other countries and other locations in Indonesia has not shown such high infection rates..

Personal Injury & Side Effects News