Hospitals themselves also have to accept some of the blame.  I presented myself at an emergency ward at a Toronto hospital with a life-threatening condition, yet had to remain in ER waiting almost 30 hours, supposedly  due to lack of a bed.  Complications arose, which resulted in my having to stay in the hospital for over a week.  

Had I been operated on in a timely fashion, my hospital stay would have been 1 or 2 days.  As it turned out, my hospital stay ended up being over 7 days, due to the aforementioned complications.

Upon questioning around, I'm dismayed to find out that the most likely reason this hospital didn't send me to another hospital in Toronto, even though I was in critical condition, was that this hospital "didn't want to lose the revenue it would get from operating on me".  So, the hospital forced me to wait for 30 hours, my condition worsened, and my hospital stay ended up being 3 times longer than it should have been.

And we wonder what is wrong with our system !!