Long waits for rooms leave patients in ER hallways. Could new law worsen the problem?

Bill Dixon, 80, lay on a bed between two white fabric dividers in the hallway of the emergency department at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas Friday, one of 14 patients waiting for an emergency bed to open up.

He had been there for two hours, having come in from his Solana Beach home with chest pain and dizziness, comfortable with the attention he was getting from medical staff, but taken aback by his surroundings.

"This is really not acceptable from a patient perspective," the Solana Beach resident said. "There's really no privacy."