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Published on 03/11/1996 All articles from this issue

Rotary speaker covers life in the emergency room

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Town Crier News ServicesDr. Jim Leroy, assistant director of the emergency room at El Camino Hospital, described a virtual onslaught of patients to the hospital¹s emergency room during the recent flu outbreak as he spoke to the Los Altos Rotary Club about emergency room medical practice on Feb. 8. He estimated approximately 3,200 patients visited the emergency room during the outbreak.Dr. Leroy¹s talk included some interesting facts about emergency room practice and the impact that the changing health care environment has had on it. For example, current law mandates that the medical staff see each patient who appears in an emergency room, but a full 40 percent of physicians¹ charges for these visits are never paid.People seek emergency room care for such things as insect bites, sunburns, minor injuries and non-emergency illnesses.Dr. Leroy speculated that problems with insurance coverage, as well as the absence of a personal physician, contribute to this phenomenon.The use of alcohol is the single largest contributing factor to emergency room visits, because of the resultant accidents, fights, abusive behavior and alcohol-related diseases.