Pick a place. Pick any Bay Area emergency room.
Chances are, all hell is breaking loose.
That's the nature of the emergency medicine business. The action usually comes in waves, but these days the waves are crashing in on doctors and nurses. But today, it's not just public hospitals that are suffering. Dr. Tom Pietz is president of the San Francisco Emergency Physicians Association and says the problem in nationwide. The emergency departments throughout the city are essentially on life support.