Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

Emergency Department Volume Increase Trend Continues Into 2014

By James J. Augustine, MD, FACEP | on November 13, 2017 | 0 Comment
Benchmarking Alliance
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released its ongoing statistical survey of emergency department visits for 2013 and 2014, finding that ongoing volume increases took place on the long-term trendlines. The calendar year 2014 ED summary tables are available here.

You Might Also Like
  • National Surveys on Emergency Department Trends Bring Future Improvements Into Focus
  • Emergency Department Visits Hit Record High, With More Cases Requiring Urgent Treatment
  • 2015 Emergency Department Survey Shows Spike in Volume, Structural Changes, Patient Boarding Concerns
Explore This Issue
ACEP Now: Vol 36 – No 11 – November 2017

The 2014 report is an extension of the survey process that began in 1992. It is used to identify trends in ED visits that are important for emergency department, hospital, and public health practitioners to understand. The 2014 data report is based on a sampling of 23,844 ED patient care reports from 283 emergency departments. National population census data were used to estimate utilization of ED services by populations.

The year 2014 saw the highest estimated volume of ED visits ever, an increase to 141.4 million compared to 130.4 million in 2013. The 20-year volume trend remains upward, at about 1.9 percent per year. ED utilization averages approximately 451 visits per 1,000 persons.

Reflecting the demographics of the American population, 15.4 percent of ED visits are from seniors older than age 65, and 19.6 percent are from pediatric patients (defined by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey [NHAMCS] as younger than age 15). An estimated 4.3 percent of ED visits were nonurgent, with the highest rates of these visits from pediatric patients.

High-utilizers continue to be nursing home residents, who accounted for about 2.5 million visits, with a utilization of 1,787 visits per 1,000 residents. About 30 percent of nursing home patient ED visits resulted in hospital admission (756,000), with an average length of stay in the hospital of 7.4 days.

The year 2014 was also the year that the Affordable Care Act placed insurance expansion into effect. It marks the first year in the CDC survey years that Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) accounted for the largest expected source of payment, at 34.9 percent. Next, was private insurance at about 34.6 percent of ED visits, with Medicare at 17.5 percent, and no insurance equaling 11.8 percent. Figure 1 reflects the trend in the payer mix over the years of CDC data collection. The trend continues for decreased use of emergency departments by patients who identified workers’ compensation as the source of payment, which is down to 0.8 percent. The most frequent payer type for admission to the hospital through the emergency department was Medicare (48 percent), followed by private insurance (42 percent), Medicaid or CHIP or other state-based program (22 percent), and no insurance (5.2 percent).

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Topics: Admission RatesCDCCenters for Disease Control and PreventionDataEmergency DepartmentEmergency Department Benchmarking AllianceEmergency MedicineEmergency PhysiciansPractice TrendsSurveyVolume

Related

  • EM Runs in the Family

    February 26, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • 2024–2025 Emergency Physician Compensation Report

    September 6, 2024 - 4 Comments
  • A Sobering Year for Emergency Departments and Their Patients

    December 11, 2023 - 0 Comment

Current Issue

ACEP Now: June 2025 (Digital)

Read More

About the Author

James J. Augustine, MD, FACEP

James J. Augustine, MD, FACEP, is national director of prehospital strategy for US Acute Care Solutions in Canton, Ohio; clinical professor of emergency medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; and vice president of the Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance.

View this author's posts »

No Responses to “Emergency Department Volume Increase Trend Continues Into 2014”

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603