Well, good luck. I'm rooting for you because your service would be amazing. You're dealing with the most fucked up, slow-moving, ass-backward industry in the history of capitalism though, so it's going to be a really tough battle.
I don't know about it being the worst possible industry -- government procurement or public education give it a run for its money some of the time. (I will refrain from playing the "find the common thread here" game.)
Seriously, though, I hope that this startup escapes the regulatory issues and goes Big. It solves a clear problem for both patients and hospitals, will greatly increase societal welfare, and it should attract Big Bucks (TM) because of the amount of money wrapped up in the problem it solves.
This page is one of the best brief sales pitches I've ever seen, by the way:
Everything about it is great. It scans great. It directly addresses the customers' needs and makes it explicit what tangible benefits buying in will get them. I have bookmarked it so that when software vendors ask how to improve their website I'll say "Your benefits section should look like this".
Never waited more than 10 minutes in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany or UK (and lived on all those countries for a while), had to wait 4.5 hours on San Francisco just few months ago.
While I'm a fan of the German healthcare system, under 10 minutes is an overstatement. Honestly, the only time I've gotten treatment that fast was when I was covered in blood. I'd say my usual (non-critical) ER waits are closer to an hour, but still shorter in general than I had when in the US. (I've lived in Germany for 7 years now.)
I have had socialized health-care in all three of the countries I've lived in and dealt with the american solution a few times while traveling. Honestly wait times were about the same across the board. Socialized or not E.R. rooms are rarely able to cope with busy times.
Socialized health care usually only means worse service for the very rich. For everyone else it's a great thing.
Socialized health-care has its own problems but just from reading the comments here it seems like a better system as it routes people to the level of treatment they need. My understanding of the US system (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that those without insurance have no other option than to attend the ER.
Here in Australia you'd generally go to a GP, a public health center or have a locum come out to visit you before heading to a hospital. There are certainly still wait times, and a system like this might be able to help, but in general I think there's a much better spread of patients to the right location.
Because this is such an intensely localized service, expanding the network of participating ERs is pretty much the most important thing we need to do. We've made it a turnkey implementation for low- and mid-volume ERs, and there are some fairly compelling customer service and bottom-line benefits for participating hospitals.
