Report: 1 in 5 in the U.S. Visited ED in '07
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According to data issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in five people visited the emergency department in 2007. The data brief is titled, "Emergency Department Visitors and Visits: Who Used the Emergency Room in 2007?"
In a press release by the American College of Emergency Physicians, ACEP president Dr. Angela Gardner says she hopes the CDC will make the full report from which this data was provided publicly available, as it will be critical to know exactly what is happening in the nation's emergency departments as health care reforms are implemented.
"There are a few data points in the brief that confirm what emergency physicians know from experience: Emergency visits remain at record high levels, and the rate of non-urgent visits is declining. Only 10 percent of emergency visits by people under age 65 were considered non-urgent," Gardner said in the prepared statement. "Furthermore, uninsured patients are no more likely to be triaged as non-urgent than patients with health insurance.
"It's important to note the report finds that having a usual source of medical care, such as a primary care provider, does not affect the number of times people under age 65 visit the emergency department. It also finds that people over age 65 with a usual source of care are actually more likely to seek emergency care... As the nation embarks on a historic path of reforming the health care system, we need factual data to plan for the future."
To view the data brief visit the CDC's website at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db38.pdf.
