>Unlike grocery stores, hospital ERs don't get frequent repeat customer interaction...

Oh yes they do. I can think of any number of patients I'm familiar with who end up in the ER multiple times a week. Practically daily for some people. And a few who are known for getting discharged from one hospital and immediately heading to another nearby one.

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myrmidon 2 days ago | parent [-]

What is a reason to end up multiple times a week in ER?

I have a bunch of people with serious conditions in my "bubble" (spontaneus penumothorax, diabetes, ...) and none of those needed the ER more than ~1/lifeyear.

If weekly hospital visits were typical, competitive free market hospitals would be more feasible IMO but I don't think we're close to that (and I don't want to be, either).

	▲	shawn_w 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Addicts (usually but not always homeless) with all sorts of drug/alcohol caused health problems that they don't manage. Not to mention overdoses/too drunk to move. Medically fragile elderly people trying to live on their own when they shouldn't be. Frequent falls with injuries, etc. A friend of my mothers was in and out of the ER and med/surg floors for months with mysterious cardiac symptoms that ended up being a new reaction to a medication she'd been taking for years. People who are just psychologically, hmm, needy and looking for attention. When I worked on an ambulance there was a lady who'd call weekly because she said her blood pressure was high (it never was) and we couldn't refuse to transport her. And more...
	▲	philipkglass 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		What is a reason to end up multiple times a week in ER? This happened with a friend's mother during her last year of life. She had dementia, cardiac problems, infections, breathing problems, a whole litany of symptoms of slow death. But she didn't have any one clearly terminal condition (like late stage cancer) that would justify a switch to hospice, so she lived in an assisted nursing facility and also had to go to the ER more than 70 times in that last year. It was horrifying for everyone and the costs were astronomical. The state is now trying to seize her daughter's house to partially offset the accumulated expenses.