Critical Perception Gaps About Emergency Care

From Medical News Today, excerpted below...
(Includes a pitch for Dermabond, but is otherwise worthwhile)

"Critical Perception Gaps About Emergency Care As Annual Emergency Room Visits Hit Record Highs"

Many US Adults Feel Uninformed About Treatment Alternatives and Disempowered to Make Affirmative Treatment Decisions in the Emergency Room -

New national survey results released today indicate that while the vast majority of U.S. adults feel confident that they know when a cut is serious enough to require emergency care, there is a considerable disconnect after actually reaching the emergency room. The survey, commissioned by ETHICON, INC., and conducted by Harris Interactive®, found that more than one-third of U.S. adults feel only somewhat or not at all confident that they would know the right questions to ask if they had to go to the emergency room for a serious cut or laceration. Even more astoundingly, more than two in five adults believe they do not have a choice in the type of care they receive once they are at the emergency room.

This news is significant considering that, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, annual emergency room visits have reached a record level of 114 million annually, a 26 percent increase from 1993.