Gothamist:
The Press Ganey Emergency Department Pulse Report 2009 rated NYC last among the nation’s 10 largest metropolitan areas for satisfaction in emergency-department care, and New York State was 46th in overall emergency room waiting time. South Dakota came in at #1 with an average waiting time of 172 minutes, while New York narrowly beat out New Mexico with an average of 288 minutes—nearly 5 hours. (Utah came in dead last with a 408 minute wait time.)
Get used to this…if 50 million uninsured people become newly insured, ER waiting times should significantly worsen as more newly insured people attempt to find primary care docs to no avail and turn to the “one stop shop” of the ERs simply because they can– now insurance pays for their healthcare.
When you fix how healthcare is paid for (the demand for healthcare), without fixing the supply of healthcare that’s able to be delivered, there becomes a serious mismatch.