Hospital That Treated Plaxico Burress Routinely Gives Rich and Famous Better Care

New York-Presbyterian Hospital gave New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress special treatment when he showed up with a gunshot wound early Saturday morning, breaking the law by failing to report the injury to police and by filing fraudulent paperwork that referred to him by the name Harris Smith.

But it turns out that at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, giving celebrities preferential treatment -- while ordinary people suffer in the waiting room -- is just standard operating procedure.

The New York Post reports:

A longtime emergency room staffer noted Wednesday the hospital routinely fast-tracks celebrities and big donors while lesser souls are left to wait.
"The celebrities get seen right away," the staffer said. "And other people don't get treated as soon because of that."

How blatant is this favoritism? So blatant that when Britney Spears once showed up at New York-Presbyterian with a minor knee injury, the only technician on duty was ordered to drop what he was doing and perform an MRI, even though he was supposed to be assigned to CAT scans at the time. While New York-Presbyterian catered to Spears' every whim, the Post reports, the trauma victim who wasn't lucky enough to be rich and famous had to sit and wait for a CAT scan.

Obviously, New York-Presbyterian should treat emergency room patients in order of how serious their injuries and illnesses are, and not in order of how wealthy and well-connected they are. But at New York-Presbyterian, it doesn't work that way. As one employee told the Post about the policy of favoring celebrities, "it's just understood."