Quality of U.S. Emergency Room Care Falls, Physicians Say

With Obamacare bearing down on them, a doctors’ group said emergency rooms are less able to provide quality care, and more resources will be needed to handle an expected surge of patients from the new law.

Hospitals have fewer beds available, causing delays in ERs that saw visits climb to 130 million in 2010, according to a report from the Dallas-based American College of Emergency Physicians. Federal funding for disaster preparedness has fallen, so the hospitals are also less prepared to handle a sudden influx of injured patients, the group said.