Long Wait Times Are the New Reality
There was a time in recent history where our newspapers were peppered with stories of patients in Europe dying as they waited to see a doctor. Those stories have fallen by the wayside. During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients in the United States and elsewhere experienced this same tragedy while enduring long wait times for care in understaffed hospitals.
The problem seems to be here to stay even as the worst of the pandemic has passed us. Short-staffed hospitals are still struggling to quickly administer treatments to suffering patients, who line hospital hallways in pain. This is detrimental to all patients, but especially so for elderly patients, whose health can be much more sensitive to timely care.
Elderly Patients at Higher Risk Due to this Issue
In many parts of the country, elderly men and women (who account for upwards of 20 percent of ER visits) have to wait for hours – sometimes days – to see an ER doctor. And the issue doesn’t stop there. Even after seeing a doctor for their pain, they are still forced to undergo long wait times for the actual treatments they need. They are often not given adequate food or water to hold them over as they sit in the waiting room for hours on end. New research reveals that elderly people who must stay in hospitals overnight are at even higher risk of passing away during that time in the first place.
Staff shortages are largely to blame for hospital hold-ups, as they affect the number of beds available to patients who need life-saving surgeries. Even when there is enough space or resources in the hospital for all the patients, they oftentimes cannot be used because there is no one to utilize them. This leads to having patients being uncared for, while hospital beds sit empty.
What Can We Do to Address Wait Times?
At Solidarity HealthShare, we believe in the Catholic principle of subsidiarity. That is one of hte main reasons why we organized this faith-based community, to share medical needs at the level as close as possible to the problem as possible. This principle also helps us address this issue, by giving you choice in which provider you choose to see. You are not required to go to a certain hospital, so you can pick the hospital in your area with better service. You are also not required to get a referral to see a specialist, often cutting months of waiting and hundreds of dollars out of the process of getting a medical issue diagnosed and addressed.
While we are not able to solve the issue of many healthcare providers not appropriately staffing their centers, we as a community can help each other. We encourage you to use our Care Navigation service, which can help you find quality providers in your area to see. We also encourage you to fill out a Provider Nomination Form if you have good providers that you want us to reach out to about becoming Preferred Providers!
Join Our Movement
At Solidarity HealthShare, we are committed to helping our Members’ and their loved ones achieve the best possible medical care that affirms their human dignity at every stage of life, from conception until natural death. Our Members are given the opportunity to participate in a community of like-minded individuals. They encourage each other in their health journeys and support each other through financial burdens. Members also enjoy medical care, free from network requirements that would otherwise prevent them from seeing the doctor of their choice.
To learn more about becoming a Solidarity Member, click the banner below today.
