9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits in Texas

[Blake Bowden]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_us/frequent_er_patients

Out of your pocket...enjoy paying yer taxes!

 

[nick1368]

i saw this on the national news...i couldn't believe it.

 

[Robert Marshall]

At first, I wasn't sure what to think of this, but I must point out that the patients in question have severe mental health issues as well as likely being homeless. For me, it shifts the blame from the patients to the system. At some point, someone should have picked them up and taken them to a psyche ward or something.

 

[JTM]

i'd be surprised if this was isolated.

 

[owls84]

I love this story. Talk about a waste of tax payers dollars. I mean you would think there where procedures in place to prevent this. It amazes me that we do not audit these programs more. Like the DMV or County Clerks office. Do we really need 5 people clocked in when 4 of them are closed and talking about their weeked or what they are doing later. It furriates me to see wasteful spending. That is the one thing I hate is this. I think any goverment manager or any company that has money from public dollars should go to a lean manufacturing class or something to prevent this sort of thing.

I do understand hospitals could not turn away patients but this could be avoided by someone getting these kinds of people the right help they needed. I bet 24 hour care in a mental institution would have been cheaper to the taxpayer. Sorry for the rant.