Question of the Day: In the ER

News flash: Hospital emergency rooms are overcrowded! That's not exactly a revelation for anyone who's ever had to take a child to one of those busy, stressful, overlit, overpopulated places, where long waits are hard to handle but being rushed right in probably means bad news. Part of the problem, according to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, is that ER use is up 18 percent at the same time that the number of open-all-night ERs has dropped by 12 percent. That made the caseload of some emergency rooms jump by over 75 percent, and forced many understaffed facilities to send ambulances on to the next hospital. Are you a regular emergency room visitor, an occasional guest, or a stranger to the spot? Pick an answer from the poll at right that reflects your frequency of ER contact, or click on "other" and explain yourself in the comments.

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