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America’s Doctors Saw More Than 1 Billion Patients in 2006

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just released new statistics pertaining to the way Americans use their doctors’ offices, hospitals, and emergency departments (EDs).  The report says that 1.1 billion visits to medical facilities took place in 2006, the equivalent to every single one of us seeing a doctor four times that year.  And 2.6 billion prescriptions were written or administered in-house.

Some other interesting discoveries made in the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics National Health Care Survey include:

• Time in ED waiting areas averaged 56 minutes
• Most ED visits happened at night and on weekends, when 63% of all adults (18 and older) visiting EDs were treated
• Nights and weekends are when 73% of all patients younger than 15 were treated
• With the exception of obstetric admissions, about 50% of all hospital admissions arrived via the ED.  In 1996, the rate of ED hospitalizations was only 36%
• 82 out of every 100 Medicaid beneficiaries used the ED versus only 21 per 100 patients with private insurance coverage
• 46% more people aged 65 and older got knee replacement surgery in 2006 than did in 2000.  50% more people aged 45 to 64 did so in 2006 than in 2000
• The incidence of coronary atherosclerosis, or clogged heart arteries, continued to drop, a decline that began in 2002 after doubling in the 1990s
• The drop in the number of people getting coronary atherosclerosis has been greatest in people 65 and older
• In 1970, 20% of all hospitalizations were for patients aged 65 and older.  In 2006, that rate has risen to 38%
• In 1970, 9% of all hospitalizations were for patients aged 75 and older.  In 2006, that rate has risen to more than 24%
• Adult patients visited hospital outpatient services for chronic diabetes 43% more often in 2006 than they did in 1996
• Adult patients visited hospital outpatient services for chronic high blood pressure more often, during that same time period, by 51%
• 7 out of 10 patients either took at least one medication while being treated or they left with prescription(s) to fill or they were advised to continue whatever course of medication was already being taken
• Of all prescriptions written in 2006, pain relievers (analgesics) were prescribed most often, at a rate of 13.6% of all prescriptions.  Primary care and ED facilities used them the most often
• Between 1996 and 2006, the number of visits to US hospitals, EDs, and doctors’ offices grew by 26%
• During that same 10-year period, the US population rose by only 11%

Source: CDC

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