News

CDC releases report on emergency department care in the US

The CDC released their annual report on emergency department (ED) care in the US . This report is based on 2004 visits from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) and the following ED statistics were notable.

Visit frequency

• Over 110 million visits were made in 2004, an increase of 18% over 10 years
• There were 38.2 visits per 100 persons, including one-fifth of all US adults in the past 12 months
• The total number of EDs in the US decreased by 12.4% over 10 years

Acuity measures

• Abdominal pain, chest pain and fever, all high-risk, were the most frequent chief complaints
• Medications were prescribed in three-quarters and procedures were performed in half of patients
• 15% arrived by ambulance
• 13% were admitted
• Of those classified, 15% of visits were emergent, 44% were urgent, 26% were semi-urgent and 15% were non-urgent

Overcrowding indices

• The mean time to see a physician was 47 minutes
• The mean time from arrival to admission or discharge was 3.3 hours
• About 2% left before being seen by a healthcare provider

To see a full copy of the report, go to http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad372.pdf. For more information about the ED utilization from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Ambulatory Health Care, go to http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhamcs.htm.