National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Monitoring
Health Care in America Quarterly
Fact Sheet
September 1995
Spotlight
on: Injuries There were approximately 34 million injury-related visits to hospital
emergency departments (ED) in 1992, or 40 percent of all ED visits. Males
had a significantly higher rate of injury visits than females, and youths
aged 15-24 years had the highest rate of any age group. Over 9.2 billion
dollars were spent on injury-related (ED) visits in 1992.
Accidental falls,
most common
Accidental falls account for 23 percent of all injury-related ED visits,
followed by motor vehicle accidents (12 percent); accidentally being
struck by people, objects, or falling objects (11 percent); cuts or
punctures by sharp objects (9 percent); and violence (5 percent). In 1993
there were over 145,000 deaths attributed to injury-related causes such as
accidents and adverse effects, suicide, and homicide and legal
intervention. Accidents were the fifth leading cause of death in 1993,
while suicide was the ninth leading cause and homicide was the tenth
leading cause.
Doctor Visits There were 23.8 million office visits to physicians because of
injuries in 1992, accounting for 3 percent of all patient visits. Injuries
and poisoning were responsible for 7.5 percent of all principal diagnoses
for patients in 1992, a total of 57.4 million diagnoses. Sprains and
strains of the back alone accounted for more than 7.7 million principal
diagnoses in 1992.
Outpatient,
inpatient visits Over 2.4 million visits to hospital outpatient departments in 1992
were due to injuries, accounting for over 4 percent of all outpatient
visits. Back symptoms were responsible for 763,000 or 1.3 percent of all
visits, while knee symptoms accounted for 535,000 visits or 1 percent of
the total. Back disorders were the principal diagnosis for 679,000
outpatient visits.
In 1993 there were over
2.7 million patients discharged from short-stay hospitals due to injuries.
Over one million of these patients were discharged for fractures, 160,000
were discharged for intracranial injuries, and 171,000 were discharged for
lacerations and open wounds. Patients admitted for injury and poisoning
stayed an average of 6.4 days in the hospital (7.5 days for fractures, 7.3
days for intracranial injuries, and 3.7 days for lacerations and open
wounds).
Health insurance
coverage
Over 17 percent of the under 65 years of age population -- or 40 million
Americans -- had no health insurance coverage in 1993. Nearly 8.4 million
children under 15 years of age were uninsured. One out of three Hispanic
Americans, one out of four Black Americans, and one out of six White
Americans under 65 years of age had no insurance. Among Hispanics, nearly
40 percent of Mexican Americans, 21 percent of Puerto Ricans, and 17
percent of Cubans were uninsured in 1993.
Over 42 million
Americans, or 16 percent of the population, were enrolled in health
maintenance organizations (HMOs) in 1994, twice as many as in 1985 and 7
times as many as in 1976. Thirty-eight percent of enrollees belonged to
individual practice associations, while 32 percent belonged to group
associations and another 30 percent belonged to mixed plans.
Meanwhile, between 1991
and 1994, private employers' health insurance costs per employee-hour
worked increased by 24 percent, to $1.14 an hour. In comparison, wages and
salaries per employee-hour worked increased by 9 percent during the same
period.
Health expenditures
Personal health expenditures in the U.S. totaled over $782 billion in
1993, more than triple the total in 1980. Hospital care expenditures
accounted for $327 billion or 42 percent of the total, while physician
services cost $171 billion (22 percent) and nursing home care costs
totaled 69.9 billion or 9 percent of the total.
For more information or
to arrange an interview with the author, please contact NCHS, Office of
Public Affairs (301) 458-4800, or via e-mail at paoquery@cdc.gov.
Data Sources
Advance Data From Vital and Health Statistics No. 248. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1992
Outpatient Department Summary
No. 253. National
Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1992 Summary
No.
261. Injury-Related Visits to Hospital Emergency Departments:
United States, 1992. 20 pp. (PHS) 95-1250 View/download PDF228
KB
No. 264.
1993 Summary: National Hospital Discharge Survey. 12 pp. (PHS) 95-1250 View/download PDF108
KB
Monthly Vital Statistics Report Annual Summary of Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths: United
States, 1993, Vol. 42, No. 13