Everything's Bigger in Texas...

From early childhood on, we've all been told that "Everything's Bigger in Texas." To me that evokes images of men wearing 10-gallon hats and large belt buckles, wide-open spaces, and ranches the size of most European countries. Now comes a report that nine people living in the Austin, Texas area rang up nearly $3 million in emergency room costs from 2003-2008. What's big about that you may ask? Well, nine patients walked into county ERs a total of 2,678 times over that time period! Wow! That's BIG- even for Texas.

For you statisticians out there, that's about 50 trips to the ER per year, per person for each of the 6 years reported. Or if you prefer to think of it in these terms, about 1 visit to the ER per week. That's a record even Amy Winehouse or Lindsay Lohan would have a tough time beating.

Of the nine people, 8 were diagnosed as drug addicts and not alarmingly, 7 were also diagnosed as mentally ill,- 3 were homeless. Most of the complaints from these "patients" involved chest pains which is often the result of anxiety, according to local health care experts.

You have to wonder what level of care the truly critically sick or injured people in these ERs received, especially when you consider these 9 people are just the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, there are many people in the ER who are wasting precious few resources for non-emergency procedures. When I was at the ER last week (a ten-hour ordeal from hell) with my son who was diagnosed with possible appendicitis, I overheard one nurse comment to a mother who had brought in a child with a cough, "Oh, I remember you- you were in here yesterday, too."

I wish I knew the answer to resolve this huge strain being placed on the health care industry and on taxpayers. And with universal health-care looming on the horizon, it doesn't look to get better any time soon. Remember, The Alamo!