Billboard and Bus

From (Chicago) NBC5.com:

The billboard encourages uninsured people to call for information about free health care, but the group, Advocate said it encourages people to use emergency rooms when they should be seeing private doctors or free clinics.

"It is a disservice to have patients who have non-urgent problems present to the emergency room, because it really delays care to those who need it the most," said Dr. Michael Davenport of Advocate Trinity Hospital.

Particularly hard hit has been Advocate System Hospitals like Lutheran General where on two occasions, people from as far as 40 miles away have allegedly been bused to their emergency room. NBC5's Charlie Wojciechowski reported.

"That's dangerous," said Dr. Douglas Propp of Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. "That's bad -- that's wrong. So when that bus arrived at our facility, we added those seven or eight patients to our typical load at that particular time of day."

Advocate officials said they have seen seven similar incidents in the past three months. In one incident, a nurse said the patients appeared scripted and had a coach along with them.