Last Thursday, American Public Media reporter Kai Ryssdal spent an afternoon in the emergency room of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, hoping to capture a snapshot of how the Baltimore economy affects healthcare.

What he found, of course, won’t surprise any of you.

“Dr. Hugh Hill’s in the middle of a 12-hour shift at Bayview.  He’s on his way to seeing maybe 170 patients today.”  His patients “depend on Bayview so much that the hospital’s been filled almost to capacity.  Ninety percent of the beds are taken.”

“More than half of the patients admitted to Bayview come in first through the ER.  And Hill Says the crush has only gotten worse as the credit crisis and the economy have collided.”

Hill: “It shows up here in that people are coming in who have jobs that they are desperate not to lose. They don't want to report that the injury was on the job. It happens because they come in, they've lost their job, healthcare starts to go down, depression sets in. And it is noticeable here.”

“Overall, healthcare spending in Maryland’s going to lose $85 million this year.”

Hill: “In this particular crisis, there may be some other people hurt before us. Folks that can't make payments on mortgages and wind up out in the street. And in any kind of a recession, you worry about people who become jobless. But one of the spinoff results is that more and more people wind up in the emergency room, because it is the one place that they can go.”

“It's also, especially in states that are cutting their budgets, one of the most expensive ways there is to get healthcare.”

To read or listen to the full story, please go here: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/11/06/baltimore_er/

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