Testing Patients’ Patience

Emergency rooms are at the breaking point. Too many patients and too few beds mean longer waits for everyone. A new report shows the delay in medical care is putting lives at risk. A Harvard study shows the average wait for emergency room care is 30 minutes. From 1997 to 2004 the median wait for a patient having a heart attack increased from 8 to 20 minutes, and a quarter of heart attack patients wait 50 minutes or longer. Those are critical moments that could save a life. The study also found that blacks, Hispanics and women wait even longer. How long should patients need to be patient? We'll take a look at the changing face of emergency medicine Friday morning at nine on the Sound of Ideas.