Why do hospital ER's advertise??

[momof1princess]

in my area, the hospitals buy billboard advertising because there are only two hospitals, and they are less than 2 miles apart, so the competition for $$ is very stiff. however, having been to both ERs with my mom, i am very unimpressed by both. the wait times range 8-9 hours, they're dirty-looking, and the staff at both are quite rude. i wish there was a third option.

 

[OhhBother]

Because a significant percentage of (insured) hospital admissions come in through the ER doors. Hospitals are fighting for every penny we can get right now -- we have millions in bad debt/charity care and government reimbursement is less than the cost we incur. We have to fight for paying patients.

 

[tvguy]

Basically, patients do have a choice in where they want to receive their care. A lot of people don't realize that. I actually have 4 ER's pretty much within the same distance. I can request to be taken to either of the 4. And 1 I would NEVER go to. Same thing when I had my children. I specifically went with an OB affiliated to a hospital that I liked. When my mom was at a hospital I felt she was receiving substandard care. I talked to a nurse manager and demanded she be transferred...amazingly the care improved tremendously. Why??? they didn't want to lose the $$$ to a competitor. Healthcare is a big business now.

You do not have a choice in California. I was on a jury in a wrongful death case, and the Judge made it clear, and attorneys for both sides agreed, that the law in California says, as long as the facility is licensed to treat your ailment, you have no say in where you are taken, or if you are transfered to another hospital. Transfers frequently happen to move you to a hosptial that is on your insurance prefered list.
I listen to the ambulance radios as part of my job, and they use a round robin system in emergencies. They rotate ambulances one at a time through all 8 hospitals in the area, so that no hosptial gets overloaded in the ER. You have no choice.
As to the original post, one of the local non-profit hosptials here sponsors the fireworks every Saturday night at the Minor League baseball games. I often wonder why a non-profit hospital has to advertise, and how much free medical care they could give away to low income folks instead of burning it up with fireworks.

 

[disney1990]

I know, from our house, we have a choice of 4 different hospital ERs to go to within a very close range.

 

[laurie31]

You do not have a choice in California. I was on a jury in a wrongful death case, and the Judge made it clear, and attorneys for both sides agreed, that the law in California says, as long as the facility is licensed to treat your ailment, you have no say in where you are taken, or if you are transfered to another hospital. Transfers frequently happen to move you to a hosptial that is on your insurance prefered list.
I listen to the ambulance radios as part of my job, and they use a round robin system in emergencies. They rotate ambulances one at a time through all 8 hospitals in the area, so that no hosptial gets overloaded in the ER. You have no choice.
As to the original post, one of the local non-profit hosptials here sponsors the fireworks every Saturday night at the Minor League baseball games. I often wonder why a non-profit hospital has to advertise, and how much free medical care they could give away to low income folks instead of burning it up with fireworks.

If you're driving yourself, you do.

That's surprising that you can be transferred without consent. I thought EMTALA made that illegal, nationwide.

As for the non-profit advertising, they probably spend less on the fireworks that they do to treat one indigent patient for one day. They need paying patients even more than the for-profits, as they treat everyone without regard to ability to pay. *Someone* has to pay for them. Sadly, it is the insured who cover the non-insured at this point.

 

[java]

Around here the "bad" hospital has a billboard with the average wait time of the er- which is never long because NOBODY goes there.

 

[swkmom]

When I was in another state over the summer there were signs all over the malls and a billboard for an ER advertising they had online check-in stating it would greatly reduce your wait time if you checked in online before leaving for the ER. I found it kind of odd.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

the same reason that 24/7 gas stations have "Door Locks"

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I have definitely sat an made a conscious decision about what E.R. to use.

When my son was little an had some major medical issues, we used the Children's Hospital E.R. because they were the ones likely to have an anaesthesiologist experienced with his exact condition in kids his age on staff, they had extra g-tubes sized tiny in stock etc . . . However, this is the same place where we once checked in, got taken back and triaged and then waited 12 hours to see a doctor. Why? Because they got 3 kids arriving by helicopter, and many by ambulance and of course they took priority.

On the other hand, when my child fell and hit his head, had a breath holding spell and passed out and I knew knew knew he was fine, but still thought I'd do the "responsible mom" thing, I took him to the nearest E.R. which was mostly adults. Sure enough they saw a cute toddler and jumped up to the front of the cue.

If he ever needed stitches I'd go to still a 3rd hospital which has a reputation for "customer service". They don't do a lot of trauma, but they have a short wait, friendly staff etc . . . They'd be fine with stitches but I wouldn't have major surgery there.

 

[tvguy]

If you're driving yourself, you do.
.

Yes, but the hospital has a right to transfer you elsewhere in California once you are stabilized.
I ran into that when I was a Little League official and we had an minor injury. The paramedics were going to go to a hospital 25 miles from here because it was next up to receive a patient. I pointed out to the dad that he could drive to the hospital of his choice. The paramedic put his fingers in his ears and said " I didn't hear that, but he's correct". So that's what dad did.

 

[disfan07]

In Virginia, I flat out refused to go to Fair Oaks Emergency room even though it was a little bit closer to our house and it was the hospital that ambulances automatically took you to unless you or a family member requested otherwise. They automaticlaly took you to the closest public hospital. If you wanted to go to a private hospital you had to request it and our hosiptal was private.
I ALWAYS went to Reston Hospital because it was a private hospital that was less busy and had a very very low doctor/nurse turnover rate so when you are there avergaing once a month, I liked having people I know. Especially since it almost always ended up with an admission. I really liked Reston. I despised the other two hospitals. Both INOVA hospitals.

In California where we live now, you couldnt pay me enough to ever go back to our local ER. My dad took me once when I was having an asthma attack when I was visiting them. I went in with O2 sats in the 70s, heart rate at about 200 and wheezing. They gave me one neb treatment and 1 dose of steroids and sent me home. Never saw a pulmonologist and only ever saw the doctor once. We decided to drive down to Cedars-Sinai and I ended up spending 4 days in the hospital with an acute asthma attack and ended up on steroids for 6 weeks. If it is something that can wait 45 mins-1 hour (meaning not necessarily life or death) we drive to cedars-sinai because all of my doctors are there and they are amazing. In the past year, we have been there for 6 asthma attacks and 2 surgery complications. If it is something that is much more urgent (liek my heart complications...2 ER visits), we drive about 15-20 minutes to Providence Holy Cross hospital and than do a transfer to cedars if necessary (discharge from Holy cross and my doctor admits me to cedars). Providence has been amazing with calling my doctors at cedars and working with them over the phone so a "transfer" has only been necessary once.

My case is complicated. I am an asthma patient, cardiology patient, neurosurgery patient and immunology patient. We essentilaly cannot use our local hospital. They dont have a good reputation and after that one experience, I dont trust them with anything. If I ever have to fight it I will, and my doctors will fight as well. They dont like me going anywhere besides Cedars or Holy Cross. We've never called an ambulance here. If we ever had to and they refused to take me to Holy Cross, we would refuse the ambulance and drive to the hospital. That's how bad our local hospital is and in reality, they are not qualified to care for me.