Hospital crowding targeted

This is a pretty lame band-aid if ask me. Like trying to repair a breached levee with a wad of chewing gum. Real solutions will come only when 3 things happen.

1) Control illegal immigration - Watch Arizona and see how they're dealing with it. No more anchor babies either. A child of an illegal should be illegal as well. Yes, America was built by immigrants... Immigrants who waited in line and came LEGALLY then assimillated and gave back to their country instead of bleeding it to death. The state can help by providing free English classes to legal immigrants.

2) Kick Wall Street out of health care completely!!! The HMOs care more about their stock prices than providing needed care. This can be done by creating a new non-profit status that will reward health care companies for providing care instead of denying it.

3) We already have a public health care system and as Americans we should be ashamed!!! We can create a public health care system that is proactive and preventative instead of reactive and too late. A system that promoted wellness and fitness which would help people help themselves.

That's what stupid bills like this do, they leave patients in the streets. Why not pass a law that makes assemblymen SMART? It's just as easy, eh?

It would help if the reporter would ask a few questions such as "why did those hospitals close given we have so many patients". Then old Ted Lieu would have to admit "well, its because we can't control our borders and the illegals won't pay their bills so they go out of business"

Putting beds in the hallways won't pay the bills either. Ted Lieu is not thinking but until our news reporters learn how to "report", he will get away with it.

This creates more of a bureaucracy , potential lawsuits, scapegoats for the higher echelon while California has no money. Classify the hospital as a clinic maybe the way to go. Better yet ! Use the emergency ONLY for emergency's (critical, life threatening kind of stuff) for which, it was intended.

Of course it's a band aid measure. The changes that will actually make a lasting change are too radical and wide ranging to happen quickly (the hospitals and insurance companies are driven by money and it would hurt their profits). We need to keep working toward those changes whatever they may be, but this bill is a way to deal with some of the ER overcrowding issues until then. Most people who don't work in a hospital know this, but when hospital beds are unavailable, patients are boarded in the ER. Therefore, nurses upstairs will drag their feet, say the room is dirty, or there is no bed in the room, so they don't have to take care of patients. It's laziness. But the patients suffer because the ER beds are taken up by admitted patients, reducing the capacity of the ER to see new, sick patients. And thus, long waits. Letting patients go upstairs to wait for a bed frees ER space, cutting wait times. Why is that lame and stupid?

Bill wrote:

This is a pretty lame band-aid if ask me. Like trying to repair a breached levee with a wad of chewing gum. Real solutions will come only when 3 things happen.
1) Control illegal immigration - Watch Arizona and see how they're dealing with it. No more anchor babies either. A child of an illegal should be illegal as well. Yes, America was built by immigrants... Immigrants who waited in line and came LEGALLY then assimillated and gave back to their country instead of bleeding it to death. The state can help by providing free English classes to legal immigrants.
2) Kick Wall Street out of health care completely!!! The HMOs care more about their stock prices than providing needed care. This can be done by creating a new non-profit status that will reward health care companies for providing care instead of denying it.
3) We already have a public health care system and as Americans we should be ashamed!!! We can create a public health care system that is proactive and preventative instead of reactive and too late. A system that promoted wellness and fitness which would help people help themselves.

Bill,,,what are you doing the next eight years. We have a job for you.

When I read this in the paper I just laughed. I was at our local hospital's ER not too long ago. I'll give you one guess who the clientele were...they brought all their children with them and spoke broken English. I was so angry. They ended up in the bed across from me back in the ER and they were there for a "toothache" - Yes, I know often toothache can end up being infections that can go to the brain but come on...I heard the physician ask the patient when was the last time he was at a dentist. I guess his mouth was a mess. The physician told him he needed to go to a "DENTIST" -

I have a PPO insurance and want to know where I ended up seeing the ER physician? In the darn hallway. Where do you think this family got to go? In a ROOM! I was livid.

I have no sympathy at all anymore for these folks who are coming over the border. Do these politicians think we are idiots? Ted Lieu is just another stupid politician who is afraid to tackle the ROOT cause of over crowded emergency room/hospitals.

While we are moaning and groaning over the politicians, let us also put blame on companies who INSIST on hiring illegal immigrants especially in the construction industry. I watched a house being built next to us and I can't tell you how many times I called the Redondo Beach police because of the workers who were noisy and unruly. They were so obnoxious. What happened to the days when American young men worked in construction and made darn good money. Now they bring in illegals who will do the work for far less and, they end up crowding our emergency rooms. Nothing will get done until ALL Americans start to make some real noise and say "NO MORE"-

I am so disgusted because no one will stand up to Mexico. We are just letting them walk all over us here in the United States of America. Just wait - when they start rationing water.

When I read this post my blood started to boil! I'm with you on every count. Like you I unfortunately had an E R experience and while in the waiting room I thought I was in Mexico, I'm so tired of hearing Spanish every where I go, not to mention that I have to be responsible for all of my medical bills because I'm an AMERICAN with a legal S.S# and unlike all the illegal aliens! Many of us are as angry as you and we need to get Mr. Lieu Lieu out!

KSF wrote:

When I read this in the paper I just laughed. I was at our local hospital's ER not too long ago. I'll give you one guess who the clientele were...they brought all their children with them and spoke broken English. I was so angry. They ended up in the bed across from me back in the ER and they were there for a "toothache" - Yes, I know often toothache can end up being infections that can go to the brain but come on...I heard the physician ask the patient when was the last time he was at a dentist. I guess his mouth was a mess. The physician told him he needed to go to a "DENTIST" -
I have a PPO insurance and want to know where I ended up seeing the ER physician? In the darn hallway. Where do you think this family got to go? In a ROOM! I was livid.
I have no sympathy at all anymore for these folks who are coming over the border. Do these politicians think we are idiots? Ted Lieu is just another stupid politician who is afraid to tackle the ROOT cause of over crowded emergency room/hospitals.
While we are moaning and groaning over the politicians, let us also put blame on companies who INSIST on hiring illegal immigrants especially in the construction industry. I watched a house being built next to us and I can't tell you how many times I called the Redondo Beach police because of the workers who were noisy and unruly. They were so obnoxious. What happened to the days when American young men worked in construction and made darn good money. Now they bring in illegals who will do the work for far less and, they end up crowding our emergency rooms. Nothing will get done until ALL Americans start to make some real noise and say "NO MORE"-
I am so disgusted because no one will stand up to Mexico. We are just letting them walk all over us here in the United States of America. Just wait - when they start rationing water.

Gomer is the only one of you who has a clue. The rest of you can complain about immigrants all you want, but that solves nothing. The ERs will continue to treat everyone in the order of seriousness and regardless of their financial or legal status.
What I can't understand is why everyone is so opposed to this legislation which seems to be a quick bandaid on the problem. Why not put a bandaid on the problem while we work on a better long term solution?
While the professionals working in the ER continue to do their best to take care of the emergency (and sometimes not so emergency) patients, they also have to board the patients who can't move to the wards due to lack of beds and lack of staffing. I love the idea of forcing the admin to check on the ER status and be held responsible for their situation.
Ted, putting beds in the hallways may not pay the bills, but it will allow the ER staff to stop caring for admitted patients so they can focus on what they are trained for, dealing with emergency patients. This legislation isn't about saving money, it is about making the ER a safer place for patients and a saner place for staff. I suppose that you would prefer that the ER doctor caring for your mother as she was having her heart attack was also trying to manage another 10 patients who had already been admitted and should be up on the ward now if not for lack of beds....sorry, mommy will have to have her heart attack in the waiting room because all the ER beds are already filled. Sound good to you? It is the reality right now.
I say "Bravo Senator...every little bit helps!"

We used to be clean, great producing, more morals and freedom than any country in the world and also number one until all this immigration espcially from the third-world countries. So what does that tell you Americans?- We have demonic people running our government who are now serving the European nations and together they are stealing America's money and giving our country away. These horrible problems now happening in America did not start until the mid 1980's when that evil Ronald Reagan went to Mexico and told them that lie that we need all these Mexicans over here because they are doing jobs we are not doing,etc. And also that destroy America system of NAFTA (foreign trade) which is designed to give our money away to foreigners and make us poor and controlled. America is being the dumping ground for all the other countries unwanted people while we are being robbed of our money and glamour and once great nation. We do not need any foreigners here especially third-world ones - they are the ones who were/are poor and in need. We have the right to change all this crap and send people who were never supposed to be given citizenship and receivign things that Americans are not being allowed to get out of this country and we have the right to clean our government up from the liars and thieves. I'm tired of seeing the mexicans on the street blowing dirt with leaf blowers and making our air and streets dirtier. They are getting paid to blow dirt instead of cleaning with a broom. We are being trashed and we are starting to look like dirty ragged Mexico. Americans were doing these jobs that's why we were the number-one country we need to give these jobs back to Americans.

Americans stop believing these high gas prices by evil Bush and his friends - they are stealing our money and getting multi-richer. The high gas prices are designed to make us look like Europe with their evil system - Bush even said this out of his own mouth in year 2006. Stop letting our government make any law they want to making us a dictatorship country. Rent is way too high. Stop greedy rent raises - rent should not be allowed to be raised yearly, stop forcing people to wear a seatbelt while driving - this is only about control and stealing money.