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Emergency Department Visit Rates by Selected Characteristics: United States, 2021

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File Language:
English


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  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    In 2021, 140 million emergency department (ED) visits occurred in the United States. During that year, about 4% of children had two or more ED visits in the past 12 months, and 18% of adults had visited the ED in the past 12 months. This report presents characteristics of ED visits by age group, sex, race and ethnicity, insurance, and mentions of COVID-19, using data from the 2021 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS).

    Key findings Data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey

    ● The overall emergency department (ED) visit rate was 43 visits per 100 people in 2021.

    ● ED visit rates were highest for infants under age 1 year (103 visits per 100 infants) and adults aged 75 and over (66 per 100 people).

    ● The ED visit rate for Black or African-American non-Hispanic people (81) was the highest among the selected racial and ethnic groups.

    ● The ED visit rate for patients with private insurance was lowest compared with all other primary expected sources of payment, and the rate for patients with Medicaid was highest.

    ● In 2021, a COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed for 3.8% of all ED patient visits.

    Suggested citation: Cairns C, Ashman JJ, King JM. Emergency department visit rates by selected characteristics: United States, 2021. NCHS Data Brief, no 478. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2023. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/ cdc:131757.

    CS342162

  • Series:
    NCHS Data Briefs
  • Document Type:
    Journal Issue
  • Name as Subject:
  • Genre:
    Statistics
  • Place as Subject:
    United States
  • CIO:
    National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.)
  • Issue:
    478
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha256:48f953beb5671199f4c089d7d3f69336edb92ab2e59da77096b13feb56ea5fb3
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 439.86 KB ]

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