In the recent healthcare reform debate, emergency rooms have gotten a lot of discussion. In fact, reducing the number of visits to emergency rooms by providing healthcare coverage that covers doctor visits and that helps patients get better preventive care was a specific goal in healthcare reform.

Emergency rooms are critical to the American health care system, since they are often the only place that patients can get immediate care for true emergencies. But, for many reasons, they are often used for purposes other than for what they are intended. Here are 20 facts about emergency rooms you may not know.

1. Emergency room visits increased by 26 percent from 1993 to 2003.
2. During that same period, the number of emergency rooms declined by 425, and the number of hospital beds declined by 198,000.
3. About 15.6 percent of the visits to the emergency rooms are for general symptoms like pain and fever.
4. Musculoskeletal symptoms, such as bone breaks and fractures along with muscle sprains accounted for 13.7 percent of emergency room visits.
5. Each year, hospital acquired infections kill about 90,000 patients, so the hospital isn’t necessarily the place you want to visit if you don’t have to. This figure is up 36% since 1980. The rise is attributed to the creation of more antibiotic resistant bacteria.
6. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the average emergency room visit costs about $400, while the average doctor visit costs about $60, according to the American Medical Association.
7. Children make up 27 percent of all emergency room visits, but only 6% of US emergency rooms have all of the necessary supplies for pediatric emergencies.
8. Between 1993 and 2003, 1.7 million visits to the emergency room were for adverse effects from other medical treatment.
9. Overall, patients spend an average of 3.2 hours on each visit to an emergency room.
10. The average wait time to see a doctor in an emergency room is 46 minutes. In 2007, 18% of patients were seen in 15 minutes or less.
11. In 2007, there were 116.8 million visits to emergency rooms in the US.
12. In 2007, 12.5% of patients who visited the emergency room were admitted to the hospital.
13. Medicaid beneficiaries go to emergency rooms more often than others, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Their report shows that 15% of Medicaid beneficiaries under 65 had two or more ER visits, compared with 7% of the uninsured and 5% of people with private insurance.
14. Residents of the District of Columbia visit the emergency room more than residents of any state. Among the states, people in West Virginia visit the emergency room the most and people in California visit it the least.
15. In 2006, there were 1,742,887 drug-related emergency room visits nationwide.
16. 31 percent of these visits involved illicit drugs only.
17. 7% of these visits involved minors and alcohol.
18. Overall, 33% of drug related visits to the emergency room
    involve alcohol (sometimes in combination with other drugs).
19. The single most common illicit drug use that results in emergency room visits is cocaine.
20. The most common type of prescription drug whose use result in emergency room visits are the drugs in the opioid category, specifically: hydrocodone, oxycodone, and methadone.

As you can see, emergency room visits are on the rise, and the reasons for this are varied. In many cases, their physicians could just as easily have treated these patients during office hours, reducing costs and inconvenience, as well as making the emergency rooms more efficient for those patients who have true emergencies.

Only time will tell if healthcare reform will reduce the crowding in our emergency rooms, helping reduce costs and inconvenience for everyone involved.

It is certain, however, that demands for services from emergency rooms has been on the rise for years, even as many services have been reduced.

Keep abreast of the information provided each year by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and from the Center for Health Statistics in Maryland to stay on top of what’s happening in our nation’s emergency rooms each year.

The field of paramedics is one that is growing and that is quite interesting. The actual duties of a paramedic and the training required differs by country. In the US, there are four levels of emergency pre hospital care, as defined by the US Department of Transportation, which is responsible for regulating emergency care education on a federal level. These levels include medical first responders, Emergency Medical Technician-Basic, Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediate, and Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic, the most advanced of the four levels. Paramedics working under the direction of emergency medical control physicians provide the most advanced level of emergency medical care available to the general public outside of a hospital setting. This level of emergency qualification requires special training, and typically an internship, as well.

Paramedics thrive on the adrenaline rush that comes from having to get to an emergency quickly and from saving a life.They often form a strong bond with the people they work with, likely because of the stress they endure together and the heart wrenching scenes they sometimes witness. A big part of surviving the emotional stress of being a paramedic is having the support of others in your field, because they understand exactly what you’re going through. If you’re new to the paramedic field, you might really enjoy keeping up with others who share your passion for lifesaving. This kind of connection can really be valuable, even if you don’t actually meet some of these paramedics in person. Some are very experienced in their field, while others are tweeting about their experiences learning their new job in the classroom and in the ambulance. Here are 19 paramedics on Twitter we think you’ll want to follow.

1. Paramedic Daily: These paramedics in Palm Beach County Florida will keep you informed about their daily life saving activities.
2. Sunstar EMS: Sunstar EMS is located in Pinellas County Florida.
3. Stay Alive Paramedics: Stay Alive Paramedics are located in Victoria Australia.
4. Pedro the Paramedic: Funny name, but some serious stuff here. We’re not sure where he’s from, but he tweets a lot.
5. Paramedic Intern: This Twitter page is actually a journal by a paramedic intern. Follow his journey through learning this tough and rewarding job.
6. Uni Paramedic: This is another student paramedic training in London with the London Ambulance Service.
7. Parameditutor: This Tweeter teaches paramedic classes in London.
8. Ugly Paramedic: Musings and ramblings of a paramedic. Some of his tweets are humorous, some are random, but some get to the heart of being a paramedic.
9. Student Paramedic: Another paramedic student from London chronicles his education and experience.
10. NREMT Paramedic: Follow this paramedic on his journeys to saving lives.
11. Paramedic Emma: Female paramedic in Leeds England.
12. TPA News: This Twitter page is for the Toronto Paramedics News. Keep up with what’s going on by following them.
13. Essential EMS: This is another EMS and Paramedic News twitter site from Valencia California.
14. Paramedic Association: Follow the Paramedic news from the Paramedics Association Ontario Canada.
15. The Back of an Ambo: This paramedic tweets about patient experiences, and will give you great reason to celebrate right along with him when he saves a life.
16. EMT Paramedics: This twitter account gives you information from one of the best paramedic study guides you can find. This is a great one to check out when you’re studying for your paramedic exam.
17. NY Paramedic: Follow the adventures in life saving of this paramedic living in New York City.
18. Yorkshire Medic: Another paramedic worth a follow.
19. Paramedic Reference: Check out this site for a paramedic reference book that is very popular with US paramedics.

Paramedics are a special breed. Not everyone can live with the stress and tension that comes in emergency situations. Those who are really good at it, however, actually thrive on this stress. Keep up with the news of your field and connect with people doing the job that you love by following other paramedics on Twitter.

The decision about getting oneself enrolled into a career in Medicine that comes to the truth and correct evaluation of entire career objectives as well learning about all the related and relevant career goals for a person. However, when you are carving career for yourself in field of medicine than you should definitely think and the different parameters as discussed below to take admission into right career opportunity and course in the field of medical career.

• Choose Career according to Your Passions: Whether, you are going into a medic career of any specialty and range, you should always keep in your mind whether that particular medical profession suits to your aptitude and taste and that anyway would be appreciable enough to keep you happy for next 30 to Forty years. In case you are interested into a field related to skin care then dermatology is the career that you should always look towards at with passion and love.  A lack of interest and passion in a specialty even can take you towards situations like boredom, depression, etc that finally would be suffered by your patient.
• Range of Salary and depending lifestyle: The next important thing that you should there consider and think about while selecting a medial career is that after completing the medical career in the field of your specialty and career wise can help you to grow in life, as well as status wise.
• Job Requirements: Contrary to common belief the career into medical field necessarily not needs have a Monday through Friday, job positions. There are certain fields where a medical professional need to work through for Monday through Friday positions. There many physicians are expected to work for long and rotating shifts. So when you select any medical career then you should be wise enough to take all the things in your mind that, what that career would need from you as a job requirement.
• Be focused towards your interests: In case you have selected a specific career of your choice and opportunities in medical career especially like cardiology then you should sincere should always focus towards that particular career option.     You should certainly be devoted and inclined towards that goal of your life. You should be concentrated only towards hands on training. Do  also discuss with other students too what they feel about a specific career and opportunity
• Location: Next important point about your choice of Medical career is whether you wish to relocate for a post and position all together. Mostly choosing a re-locatable career option helps you to develop and grow in most friendlier and acceptable manner. Do also check out whether internship is provided at your center or college. Internship not only gives a practical knowledge of working environment but also helps you by providing reference for the job.
• Career Placement Options: The next important thing for going a career is that the institute where you are taking admission is capable of providing you an affordable and helpful job placement as appropriate and suitable to your choice. A career placement department helps in getting job at right place and according to your choice and at scale of your salary expectation.

Web based health apps and services now are carving out a massive scope for citizens who are quite a health conscious. These apps are very helpful to tackle down varied inefficiencies prevalent in health care system and can be used for medical diagnosis and practice.

1. Global Atlas: This is an application provided by WHO’s Communicable Disease Global Atlas for analysis and comparison of standardized data and statistics for various infectious diseases at country, regional and global levels. On and over it data is further supported from information on demography, socioeconomic conditions and environmental factors. In doing so Atlas with an alteration takes pattern of various infectious diseases transmission.
2. Optimism Apps: The Company sold out software and online applications to mental health officials around 50 countries around all over continents. The applications are now being deployed in co-branded and fully-branded forms, to organizations in North America, Europe and South East Asia.
3. Ample Blood Project: This app is a fully working diagnostic assistant that can take clinical, blood values and output a likely diagnosis. It also describes tests, compare them against each other and describe diseases.  The use of this application exists with medical students, remote areas where it is difficult to reach a doctor.
4. EGADSS: It is an open source tool which is designed to work in conjunction with primary care Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems to provide patient specific point of care reminders to aid physicians to provide high quality care. It is developed as stand alone system which responses to requests from existing Electronic Medical Records such as Wolf, Med Access, and MedOff is to provide patient specific clinical guidance based on its internal collection of guidelines
5. iStretch:  This app is consisted of a series of the office yoga exercises as precisely carved out to stretch muscles that become stiff due to immobility or repetitive movement of the body like excessive typing or having a mouse use.  Only five minutes with iStretch every day you one can get himself relived of back pain, neck stiffness, shoulder tension as well as wrist, arm and leg soreness. With the help of this application you would able to burn out fat, having increase in blood flow, alleviate headaches and reduce stress.
6. Calorie Counter: The most appalling fact to efforts of weight loss is allure of good food. This application helps to resist effects of too fried, mayonnaise drenched and delicious snacks. This particular application serves data from about 9,000 items from nearly 72 fast food restaurants. This data include calories, fat grams, fiber, carbs and protein.

Paramedics are medical professionals that mainly deal with emergency and medical services. The paramedic profession aims at providing effective emergency services which primarily provides advanced pre-hospital care for the traumatized and injured after emergency occurrences. It is not a career for the fainthearted as it barely gives one time for leisure. Professionals are always on the run trying to catch up with emergency health cases. However, as much as the job is very engaging, it is highly rewarding. Those who pursue this particular nursing career choose it out of their strong desire. It is one that demands total commitment and dedication.

Since it is a life sacrificing vocation, it brings out a great difference on the lives of those attended to. In order for you to get to greener pastures as a paramedic, it is important for you to become a registered nurse. This way, you will be exposed in the nursing field and builder a better rapport with your profession. Most of the paramedics who have gone places are those that trained as registered nurses. It is a profession that demands for hospitable and caring hands.

If you have a passion for helping people in need and at the same time need a rewarding career, then this is a very good career choice. The average salary of a Paramedic is approximately $38,000 per annum. However, it depends on the persons resume and their number of years of experience. The frequency (in hours) at which a paramedic works in a week ranges between forty five and 60 hours.

In contrast, the starting salary of an RN sums up to an average of $55,000 per annum .In addition to that, their working hours are highly predictable. As former paramedics become qualified RNS, they look forward to easier working conditions and better schedules. Paramedics deal with difficult critical and tragic cases like murder injuries, road accidents, and gun shots and so on.

As much as the RN and Paramedic professions are a bit similar, the Registered Nursing profession is quite better. The advantage is that once you become a Registered Health Nurse, you will get used to the working conditions with time. With the RN job, you nurses tend to have a stressful period which is in turn very rewarding. Since there are numerous nursing job opportunities, there is an increasing popularity of the Paramedic to RN programs. The main disadvantage about working as a paramedic is that one may not be in a position to pursue further studies. This is because there is barely any time to take part time classes.