Visits to emergency departments increased to an all-time high of 115 million in 2005--5 million more than in 2004, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) said the increase in visits combined with closures of EDs threaten the safety of patients and will further endanger an already fragile system.
According to the report, nearly 42 million visits to EDs were related to injuries. The leading patient complaints, accounting for nearly one-fifth of all visits, were abdominal pain, chest pain, and fever. Only 13.9% of visits were for nonurgent medical reasons--conditions that can still need medical attention soon, such as bladder infections, high fevers, and extremity injuries that could be fractures.
The report said the closure of EDs combined with the overall increase in visits resulted in a 31% increase in visits per ED since 1995. There were 30,388 visits per ED in 2005 compared with 23,119 visits per ED in 1995. Medicaid recipients had the highest rate of emergency visits (88/100 people) of all groups including Medicare enrollees and the uninsured, which indicates severe healthcare access problems by Medicaid patients.
