WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- More than half of hospital visits begin in the emergency room, most frequently because of heart disease, according to new data.
Some 55 percent of the 29.3 million admissions to U.S. community hospitals for conditions other than pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal care begin in the hospital emergency room, according to Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
More than one-quarter of all patients admitted through the ER had heart or blood-vessel diseases, 15 percent had respiratory diseases, 14 percent had digestive disorders and 11 percent had injuries, according to data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.
The database is part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project and includes 90 percent of all hospital discharges in the United States.
The average hospital stay for a patient admitted through the ER costs $7,400. Government payers -- Medicare and state Medicaid programs -- bore the greatest burden of hospital admissions through the ER, covering 66 percent of all such admissions.
Pneumonia led the top 20 specific conditions warranting hospitalization through the ER with 935,000 admissions in 2003. Other leading health problems included congestive heart failure, chest pain, hardening of the arteries and heart attack.
