American Medical Response Ambu-Care: Fill & Download for Free

At ANY given time on ANY given day America's ENTIRE health-care system, is at or near capacity.Think about that statement for a moment, because the reality is there are simply NOT enough beds to provide adequate medical care! Surge Care is an overly optimistic pipe dream that can NEVER be supported by American's current hospital system.Should America be hit with a nationwide epidemic or national disaster of ANY kind ... people will die for lack of care.This isn't an inner city problem, this is a national disgrace ... which affects the entirety of America from Alaska to Hawaii and ALL parts in between.--------------------------------------------When I was young (born 1955) getting medical care was a relatively simple process. You saw your family doctor at his office. When you were too ill to see him, he came to your home. Children received vaccinations at school or at their primary doctor’s office.Emergency rooms were just that, a place people went during emergencies. If you didn’t have insurance or cash, most hospitals would turn you away.During the 70s and the 80s, I worked as a respiratory therapist in Southern California. We had hospitals designated as Trauma receiving centers and dozens more hospitals located throughout Orange and Los Angeles County.In those days a large number of U.S. hospitals regularly turned away patients. Unfortunately a great many people died. Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act in 1986, largely in response to public outrage.After EMTALA was voted into law, emergency rooms throughout the nation were swamped with indigent and uninsured sick. This influx of patients was expected. What few people knew was that the government’s definition of what constitutes emergency medical care only covers a small segment of E.R. patients.Ultimately, the government refused to reimburse hospitals and physicians for much of the care they provided to these patients.Hospitals were in a double bind. If they refused to treat patients they faced government sanctions and fines. If they treated all patients, they were forced to eat a large portion of the costs. Countless doctors and hospitals went bankrupt.Some hospitals were losing up to 10 million dollars a day. Burdened with crippling debt, countless hospitals eventually closed their doors. As countless hospitals were forced into closure, thousands of people (doctors, nurses, therapists and other support staff) lost their jobs. Los Angeles and Orange County hospitals were hit particularly hard.Fast forward 30 years. Nothing is simple.Cash poor people with sick children and family members are now using hospital ERs as health clinics ... when they can locate one near their home. EVERY DAY American ERs are so overcrowded that ambulances are routinely routed AWAY. Many hospitals are forced to declare their ER closed to new patients.Throughout America even more hospitals have been closed or are facing bankruptcy. Most states offer little in the way of trauma care and have less hospital beds than many so called third world countries.The Affordable Healthcare Act has yet to fulfill even its most basic goals. There’s a critical shortage of hospitals, clinics and doctors. Medical costs are so high that even with insurance, few people can afford care.--------------------------------------------I keep several fully loaded emergency kits in my home. Everything from Ambu bags, stethoscopes, pulse oximeters and basic over the counter medications to bandages and more.I'm not the only person doing so. God forgive anything bad should hit. At least we're ready to help.Stay aware and stay safe.