CDC Reports On ED Use

A record 114 million Americans visited a hospital emergency room in 2003, despite a steady decline in the number of E.R. facilities available nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report issued Thursday.

While E.R. visits shot up 26 percent over the decade from 1993 to 2003, the number of emergency department facilities fell 14 percent over that span.

People over age 65 accounted for the bulk of the increased visits to emergency rooms. Medicaid patients were four times more likely to seek treatment there than people who had private insurance, indicating that the E.R. was often the place of first resort for poor and uninsured people.

The most common reasons for visiting the emergency room were injury, poisoning, and the adverse effects of prior medical treatment.

-news release from the CDC-