Characteristics and Trends of Emergency Department Use in the United States, 2016-2023

Health administrators, policymakers, and emergency physicians need accurate and clinically relevant data on current trends in emergency department (ED) visits. However, national databases do not apply operationally and clinically relevant categories to ED visit volumes.

Using a novel ED-relevant taxonomy over the 2016 to 2023 time horizon, we characterized the changes that occurred in the volume of ED visits, described the most common reasons for ED visits, and described the change in ED charges for care.

A Retrospective analysis of data from the National Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) from 2016 through 2023 was conducted. All International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10) were mapped into 165 emergency medicine relevant categories. Visits were stratified by age, insurance status, disposition, sex, mortality, diagnosis, and diagnostic category. Trends from 2016 to 2023 were reported.

Between 2016 to 2023, the total number of ED visits declined from 144.84 million to 142.19 million (-1.8%). The top reason for visiting an ED was abdominal pain, which accounted for approximately 10.0% of all visits in 2016 and 2023. The largest volume decrease was in sprains and strains, decreasing from 4,832,125 in 2016 to 3,272,514 in 2023.

ED visits in the U.S. decreased slightly from 2016 through 2023. Abdominal pain remained the most common reason for visiting an ED over the time period.