The Growing Older Population’s Effect on Emergency Care

Among the many factors thought to contribute to emergency department overcrowding are an increase not only in the number of patients but also in the complexity of cases. Older patients are a challenge because they typically require more-complex evaluations, have longer ED length of stays, and have higher rates of hospitalization than do younger patients.

These authors used data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey to determine trends in ED visit rates for patients older than 65 from 1993 to 2003. During the study period, ED visits for patients aged 65 to 74 increased 34%; visits for patients older than 74 did not increase significantly. Visit rates increased 93% for black patients and 26% for white patients. Visit-rate i…