“The far-reaching implications were made painfully clear” in an eloquent and moving essay in the New England Journal of Medicine by John Maa, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the UCSF Surgical Hospitalist Program. A national leader in improving emergency care, “Dr. Maa describes the all-too-familiar story of a 69-year-old woman who is admitted to the E.R. for a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat. Her operation is delayed because she has to board for a full day while waiting for a real bed. During the delay, she suffers a major stroke and dies…………The woman, we learn, was the author’s mother.”
— Excerpt from NY Times article by noted physician-journalist Dr. Pauline Chen
“The Waits that Matter” – Essay in The New England Journal of Medicine”
NY Times: “When Hospital Overcrowding Becomes Personal”
Wall Street Journal Online Network: “Long hospital Wait Times Can be Deadly”