Hits & Misses – 2009/3/31
A 1% increase in the tax on soft drinks lowers the average body mass index (BMI) by .003 points – it’s significant, but very small.
86,000 Americans wind up in the emergency room every year because they trip over their pets.
Only 1.5 percent of acute care hospitals have comprehensive electronic medical records systems.
Maybe there should be a pet tax, just like the tobacco tax and the proposed fast food tax — to cover unpaid bills in emergency rooms.
Only kidding.
The figure on hospital EMRs is much lower than what I have seen before. Appaently, the real problem is much greater than most of us supposed.
According to news stories on Natasha Richardson’s death from a head injury after a fall while skiing in Canada, Quebec (population 7.6 million) has no airlift for trauma patients. http://tinyurl.com/cbwt2r
In the U.S., Colorado (population 4.9 million) has multiple airlift systems that provide rapid medivac to Denver’s Level I trauma centers for patients in 9 states. http://www.airlifedenver.com/
Just one more reason why the best skiing is in Colorado, and one more example of how higher U.S. spending on health care benefits sick people.