California’s hospital emergency rooms (ERs) are there for you when you need them most. They see everyone who enters their doors, despite their health issue or their ability to pay for services. Over the last decade, California has lost more than 70 community hospitals and emergency rooms, and the remaining ERs are under ever increasing pressure to care for the growing number of patients who are entering their doors.

According to an August 2009 policy brief published by the Kaiser Commission, hospital emergency rooms in California and elsewhere are “operating at or over capacity” with an increasing number of patients seeking care. According to the report, several emergency rooms studied were described as “overwhelmed” or “close to the breaking point.”

California’s community hospitals had more than 11 million patient visits in 2008. This number is only expected to grow as our population continues to grown and age, and as the regular seasonal flu and H1N1 flu virus affects more Californians. Cutbacks in county mental health services are also driving more people to ERs. The average wait time in California’s ERs now exceeds 4 hours and is getting longer.