Solving the nation's health-care puzzle

Jennifer Brokaw's May 18 op-ed piece, "Save the emergency room for emergencies," perpetuated myths about emergency medicine. It also recommended diverting already-scarce resources to address a very small percentage of emergency patients.

The reality is that most patients who seek emergency care have health insurance and have medical emergencies. Only 12 percent of patients seeking emergency care have non-urgent medical conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only 3 percent of the nation's health-care expenditures are for emergency care.

Emergency departments are closing because of the burden of uncompensated care. In the District, United Medical Center is on the brink of financial failure, which The Post reported is due directly to the "District's failure to fully reimburse the cost of Medicaid patients at the safety-net hospital." Uncompensated care is the reason that more than 70 emergency departments have closed in Dr. Brokaw's home state of California.

The need to address the problems facing emergency patients is as urgent as ever. Policymakers must allocate more resources to provide this critical, life-or-death care that 120 million patients need each year. We want to be ready when your family needs us.

Angela Gardner, Washington

The writer is president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

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The recent op-ed by physicians Jim Yong Kim and James N. Weinstein ["Health reform's next test," May 17] outlined a case for examining our nation's health-care delivery system. I strongly agree, and I worked with many others to make sure the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act took steps to address this. Learning more about what works and what doesn't in care delivery is essential to shaping the system to control costs, improve quality and center on the patient.

One of the biggest steps the reform law took in this direction was the creation of a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which will conduct research not only on tests and treatments but also on "protocols for treatment, care management and delivery." The creation of an independent, well-funded and sustained research program of this kind is a big opportunity.