Emergency Department Trends in the U.S.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has compiled information about how Americans use hospital emergency departments. These findings include:

• Americans age 18 and older made more than 98 million trips to hospital emergency departments in 2008.  The reasons for these visits ranged from broken bones to heart attacks. This group alone accounted for 78% percent of the estimated 125 million emergency department visits in 2008.

• The most common acute concerns in emergency departments were injuries and abdominal pain.  The most common chronic condition was heart-related and diabetes.

• Emergency Department usage was 90% higher in low-income areas; 24% higher for patients 65 and older as opposed to those patients between 18 and 44; 39% higher in rural areas; and 26% higher for women than men.