When health care becomes 'Survivor,' nobody wins.(Brief Article)

Hospital emergency rooms, particularly during the winter months, are so overrun by patients that they frequently have to divert incoming emergencies to other hospitals, forcing ambulance drivers to radio around for an ER that can take their patient.

Home-care agencies, long beleaguered from underfunding in the state's community-based system, have resorted to trying to siphon existing Medicaid funds away from the state's nursing home system.

And nursing homes, saddled with high direct-care staff vacancies and turnover rates, chronic public underfunding and more frequent facility closures, struggle to manage a sicker nursing home population, an increasing number of …