Manatee emergency rooms should refocus huge billboard expenses

Manatee County commissioners and officials have been wrestling with the problem of indigent residents using the hospital emergency rooms for non-emergency primary care.

A contributing reason: the huge billboards advertising the hospitals' emergency rooms have only a few minutes' waiting time. That's usually less time than I have to wait to see my physician even with an appointment.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist or genius to reduce the number improperly using the emergency rooms.

The county commissioners should make as a "condition for hospitals receiving taxpayers' money" that they take down those emergency room advertising billboards.

Those billboards must be very expensive, and to afford to spend the money they must be bringing a large number to the emergency rooms.

Richard McNulty

Bradenton

This story was originally published October 11, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee emergency rooms should refocus huge billboard expenses ."