Hooked on heroin, she sat 2 days in an ER. Hospitals say you pay for this stay, too.

[TexasTowelie]

A 25-year-old Gaston County woman who is addicted to heroin waited two days in a hospital’s emergency department, in a psychiatric observation room with no bed.

She needed help for her drug addiction, her family says, but local treatment centers were full.

“They don’t have any place to put them. They’re so packed,” says the woman’s grandmother.

Instead, the woman was taken to an emergency room by police last month, under a judge’s order to involuntarily commit her. The woman’s family says she had threatened to kill herself and they’ve been concerned about her health and behavior after learning she’s been using heroin for several years.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article161034564.html

[forgotmylogin]

1. I don't think this is the ERs fault.

Their primary directive is to get you out of there where you need to go, they are not a drug treatment facility, but they will do everything they can to keep you alive while you're there. I've been to the ER with my mom, and I have seen the ER set up temporary beds along the hall if no rooms are available. They need resources.

[Laffy Kat]

2. Heartless. nt

[Not Ruth]

3. Why wouldn't she go to an ER and why wouldn't she pay?

Both seem reasonable under the current health care system. Not that I am on any kind of expert of addiction, but if you code, an ER is the right place to do it.