Late Night Health

Getting past The Medical Gatekeeper, I am Eric Rosenthal, I’m a medical journalist and this is my personal story about an access my to care issue. I was forced to receive treatment in an emergency room because a medical office wouldn’t return repeated calls for an appointment. Much of this has to do with accountability, with fingers often being pointed in various directions by various employees, but the ultimate responsibility for all office procedures resides with the physician-owners of the practice.I’ve been a lifelong runner and began having trouble breathing while exercising last fall. My internist diagnosed late-onset asthma, and prescribed a rescue inhaler.However a few weeks later I began having difficulty breathing at night and developed a very bad persistent cough. After three nights of no sleep my condition grew worse and the day after Christmas I ended up in the emergency room of a suburban-Philadelphia teaching hospital, where I was diagnosed with bronchitis, and prescribed a course of oral