Advance data
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This report describes ambulatory care visits to hospital emergency departments in the United States. Statistics are presented on selected patient and visit characteristics. ⋯ During 1996, an estimated 90.3 million visits were made to hospital emergency departments (ED's) in the United States, about 34.2 visits per 100 persons. Persons 75 years and over had the highest rate of emergency department visits. There were an estimated 34.9 million injury-related emergency department visits during 1996, or 13.2 visits per 100 persons. There were 110,000 visits related to injuries caused by firearms, including 73,000 visits for gunshot wounds. Almost one-fifth of the injury visits were work-related for persons 18-64 years of age. Almost four-fifths of the ED visits involved medication therapy. Pain relief drugs accounted for almost 30 percent of the medications mentioned. Acute upper respiratory infection was the leading illness related diagnosis for ED visits.
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This report describes medications provided or prescribed during ambulatory medical care visits in 1992. Total ambulatory care medication therapy combines data from office-based physicians, hospital outpatient departments (OPD's), and hospital emergency departments (ED's). Drug therapy is described along three dimensions: number of drugs provided or prescribed (drug mention), whether a visit had any drugs mentioned (drug visit), and average number of drugs mentioned per 100 visits (drug mention rate). Utilization in ambulatory care settings is compared in terms of patient, drug, provider, and visit characteristics. ⋯ The profile of patients using office- and hospital-based ambulatory care settings are quite different as is the case-mix of conditions. These differences play an important role in medications utilized. The aging of the U.S. population from 1980 to 1992 appeared to have significant effects on several drug mention characteristics.
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This report presents data on hospice care discharges. Numbers and percents of discharges are shown by selected characteristics of the agencies from which the patients were discharged, by selected patient characteristics, by services provided, by types of personnel that provided the services, and by diagnoses of these discharged patients. ⋯ There were an estimated 328,000 discharges from hospice care from 1,300 hospices and home health agencies in 1993-94. Death was the reason for discharge for 88 percent of the discharges. Fifty-two percent of the discharges were for men, 73 percent were for patients 65 years of age and over, 79 percent were white, 49 percent were married, and 30 percent were widowed. Eighty-three percent of the discharged patients were living in a private or semiprivate residence during their care and 95 percent had a primary caregiver. During the last time service was provided prior to discharge, 67 percent received help from the agency with at least one activity of daily living (ADL), 53 percent with at least one instrumental activity of daily living (IADL), and 30 percent with walking. These discharges had an average of 2.2 diagnoses at admission; 69 percent had a primary diagnosis of a malignant neoplasm; and 8 percent had a primary diagnosis of heart disease.
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This report describes ambulatory care visits to hospital emergency departments in the United States. Statistics are presented on selected patient and visit characteristics. ⋯ During 1995, an estimated 96.5 million visits were made to hospital emergency departments (ED's) in the United States, about 36.9 visits per 100 persons. Persons 75 years and over the highest rate of emergency department visits. There were an estimated 37.2 million injury-related emergency department visits during 1995, or 14.2 visits per 100 persons. There were 225 thousand visits related to injuries caused by firearms, including 144 thousand visits for gunshot wounds. One-fifth of the injury visits were work-related for persons 18-64 years of age. Four-fifths of the ED visits involved medication therapy with pain relief drugs accounting for 30 percent of the medications mentioned. Acute upper respiratory infection was the leading illness-related diagnosis for ED visits.
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This report presents data on current hospice care patients. Numbers and percents are shown by selected characteristics of the agencies from which the patients received services, by selected patient characteristics, by services provided, by types of personnel that provided the services, and by diagnoses of these patients. ⋯ An estimated 61,000 patients were receiving hospice care services from 1,300 hospices and home health agencies in 1994. Fifty-five percent were women, 69 percent were 65 years of age and over, 81 percent were white patients, 48 percent were married, and 31 percent were widowed. Eighty-four percent were living in a private or semi-private residence, and 90 percent had a primary caregiver. Sixty percent received help from the agency with at least one activity of daily living (ADL), 46 percent with at least one instrumental activity of daily living (IADL), and 26 percent with walking. At admission, there was an average of 2.2 diagnoses per patient; 57 percent had a primary diagnosis of a malignant neoplasm and 9 percent had a primary diagnosis of heart disease.