Emergency Room Statistics; More Visits and Less Satisfaction

For those of you who have spent time in the Emergency Department (ED) yourself or while assisting another person, the following figures are not surprising. I have been to the ED of Memorial Regional Medical Center twice within the past year assisting my parents with particular issues. Obviously, seniors have a higher probability for unexpected emergency department visits. Many people I talked with, while working in the nursing home, told me of stories of ambulance rides and ED visits at 3am due to an accident or an exacerbation of their parent's health condition.

The average time spent in emergency departments(ED) rose in 2006, but so did patient satisfaction, according to a new report by Press Ganey Associates. Based on the firm’s patient surveys in 1,500 hospitals, patients spent an average of 4 hours in the ED, 18 minutes more than in 2005. The more patients an ED saw over the year, the longer the average visit, which increased by 30 minutes for every additional 10,000 patients annually. Patient satisfaction dropped as time in the ED increased, with the lowest satisfaction reported from 3-11 p.m. and highest from 7 a.m.-3 p.m.

Visits to hospital emergency departments increased by 5.1 million in 2005 to 115.3 million, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That averages to about 30,000 visits per ED, nearly one-third more than in 1995. According to the report, the ED visit rate for patients without health insurance was about twice that of those with private insurance. Infants under 1 had the highest visit rate by age. The leading diagnosis for children under 13 was acute upper respiratory infection. Other top diagnoses by age were bruises, adolescents; abdominal pain, adults under 50; chest pain, adults 50-64; and heart disease, seniors. About 12% of ED visits resulted in hospital admission. The leading diagnosis at discharge was heart disease.