« Home | Visit to Massachusetts General Hospital ER »
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
The ER today
In 1965, there were 30 million visits to the ER; in 1999 there were 103.7 million visits to the ER.US hospitals in the same period dropped from 7,123 to 5,890.
According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, Americans made more than 115 million visits to hospital emergency rooms in 2003. Some of the most common complaints were stomach pain, chest pain, fever and cough. About 12 percent of those seen in the emergency room are admitted to the hospital.
The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey found in 2002, the average duration of a visit to the emergency room was 3.2 hours. However, the actual range of waiting time varied, with some patients waiting as long as 6 hours.
More...
FACTS ON US HOSPITALS FROM AHA HOSPITAL STATISTICS
The American Hospital Association conducts an annual survey of hospitals in the United States. The data below is from the 2004 annual survey.
Total Number of All U.S. Registered* Hospitals 5,759
Number of U.S. Community** Hospitals 4,919
Number of Nongovernment Not-for-Profit Community Hospitals 2,967
Number of Investor-Owned (For-Profit) Community Hospitals 835
Number of State and Local Government Community Hospitals 1,117
Number of Federal Government Hospitals 239
Number of Nonfederal Psychiatric Hospitals 466
Number of Nonfederal Long Term Care Hospitals 112
Number of Hospital Units of Institutions (Prison Hospitals,
College Infirmaries, Etc.) 23
Total Staffed Beds in All U.S. Registered* Hospitals 955,768
Staffed Beds in Community** Hospitals 808,127
Total Admissions in All U.S. Registered* Hospitals 36,941,951
Admissions in Community** Hospitals 35,086,061
Total Expenses for All U.S. Registered* Hospitals $533,853,359,000
Expenses for Community** Hospitals $481,246,587,000
Number of Rural Community** Hospitals 2,003
Number of Urban Community** Hospitals 2,916
Number of Community Hospitals in a System*** 2,669
Number of Community Hospitals in a Network**** 1,464
*Registered hospitals are those hospitals that meet AHA's criteria for registration as a hospital facility. Registered hospitals include AHA member hospitals as well as nonmember hospitals. For a complete listing of the criteria used for registration, please see Registration Requirements for Hospitals .
**Community hospitals are defined as all nonfederal, short-term general, and other special hospitals. Other special hospitals include obstetrics and gynecology; eye, ear, nose, and throat; rehabilitation; orthopedic; and other individually described specialty services. Community hospitals include academic medical centers or other teaching hospitals if they are nonfederal short-term hospitals. Excluded are hospitals not accessible by the general public, such as prison hospitals or college infirmaries.
***System is defined by AHA as either a multihospital or a diversified single hospital system. A multihospital system is two or more hospitals owned, leased, sponsored, or contract managed by a central organization. Single, freestanding hospitals may be categorized as a system by bringing into membership three or more, and at least 25 percent, of their owned or leased non-hospital preacute or postacute health care organizations. System affiliation does not preclude network participation.
**** Network is a group of hospitals, physicians, other providers, insurers and/or community agencies that work together to coordinate and deliver a broad spectrum of services to their community. Network participation does not preclude system affiliation.
Anonymous at 1:01 PM