FOR PROFIT:Hospitals prefer to treat patients with minor conditions or those needing expensive surgeries, a foundation for health reform said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 16, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

It is estimated that more than 3,700 people with first-degree injuries each year are stuck in emergency units for two days before they are transferred to inpatient beds in hospitals, the Taiwan Health Reform Foundation said yesterday.

That figure is five times the time needed for an Australian hospital to make the same transfer, the foundation said.

“After cross-analyzing national emergency room monitoring data and National Health Insurance statistics, the foundation discovered three vital concerns stemming from the constant overcrowding in the emergency departments of most of the nation’s hospitals,” foundation chairperson Liu Mei-chun (劉梅君) told a press conference in Taipei.     [FULL  STORY]