In the last decade a number of local hospitals have closed in the Cleveland area, putting strain on the remaining hospitals to pick up the slack. Emergency rooms have felt the pinch more than ever, explains Sara Laskey, an Emergency room physician at Cleveland's Metro Health Medical Center who has personally observed an increase in traffic.
LASKEY: There used to be moments in the middle of the night where it used to be quiet. You could catch up on some of your charting, think some things through. And now we are working 24-7.
Laskey says only about 20% of the emergency room patients she sees could be seen by a primary care doctor - the rest are using the emergency room as they should. Demand for emergency care simply exceeds the current capacity - a problem that's compounded by a shortage of nurses and bed space in the rest of the hospital
LASKEY: If someone comes in and they need to be admitted and there's no bed, they're gonna stay with us in the Emergency Department because we have the critical care nursing staff to take care of them.
According to the report, age groups with the highest visit rates were infants under 12 months of age and the elderly. Gretchen Cuda, 90.3