There are reports that the "aging of the U.S. population is translating into many more visits to doctors' offices and hospitals, a reality that is taxing weak spots in the healthcare system, according to a government report released Wednesday." Investigators found that overall, "[p]eople made an average of four visits a year to doctors' offices, emergency rooms, and hospital outpatient departments in 2006, a total of 1.1 billion visits." The data also showed that the "number of medical visits increased 26 percent between 1996 and 2006, significantly higher than the 11 percent population growth during that period."
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta released the statistics, and they came "from various components of [the] CDC's National Center for Health Statistics National Health Care Survey".
According to the CDC, "the observed increase in medical visits 'can be linked to both the aging of the population, as older persons have higher visit rates than younger persons in general, and an increase in utilization by older persons.'" In terms of racial disparities, the "overall visit rate was not significantly different for white and black persons." But, "African-Americans had higher visit rates than whites to hospital outpatient departments and emergency departments, and lower visit rates to office-based surgical and medical specialists." Additionally, "[r]egardless of setting -- physician office, outpatient clinic, or emergency department -- seven out of 10 patients left the medical visit with at least one prescription, and analgesics were the most common drug prescribed."
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