Patients’ ER experiences typically consist of long wait times, and that naturally leads to frustration and a frequent misunderstanding that nothing is being done or that they are being diagnosed improperly. The truth is our emergency departments have had to take on a lot more than that, serving as the safety net of the country’s entire health care system. You’ve heard this over and over — our health care system is broken. We have lost valuable physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and other vital members of the health care system. We have a very different health care system and training of physicians than those countries.

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