News Releases

Report Examines Dramatic Rise in Year-end Emergency Room Cases

Emergency room cases rose by nearly 14 percent in December of 2014 according to The Center for Health Affairs most recent Key Indicators Report on hospital market trends, now available on the legacy Volume Statistics site. For the fourth quarter, the number of patients seen in the region’s emergency rooms increased just over 8 percent. Though fourth quarter increases in emergency room cases is not a new trend, these year-over-year increases are larger than what is typically seen. It’s likely several factors contributed to the rise in emergency room cases; however, the one that likely had the largest impact was the severity of this year’s flu season.

In addition to providing an explanation of why this year’s flu season in particular led to such a spike in emergency department volume, the report features several volume statistics trends at year-end, comparing them to the same statistic in 2013, including the following highlights:

• Total patient discharges declined by 1.42 percent.
• Inpatient surgical cases declined by 0.76 percent.
• Emergency department cases increased by 2.03 percent.
• Outpatient surgical cases increased by 0.49 percent.

The Key Indicators Report provides analysis of the hospital market based on Volume Statistics data. For more information on emergency room cases or year-end volume trends please contact George Jeney via email or at 216.255.3666.