Connecticut hospitals are seeing an increase in emergency department visits, but many patients being treated don’t really have an emergency, a recent study shows.
In 2009, there were 1.6 million emergency department visits reported by the state’s 29 acute care hospitals, an overall increase of 10 percent since 2006, according to the state’s Office of Health Care Access.
Of those visits, only 47 percent, or nearly half, were for non-urgent problems.
Eightyâfive percent of 2009 ED visits did not require inpatient care and are commonly referred to as ED nonâadmits.
Emergency room care that was not preventable or avoidable was required in only 10 percent of the visits made each year.
