People visited emergency rooms (ER) more than 7.12 million times last year, with Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital recording the most visits and “fever of unknown origin” being the most common reason for an ER visit, National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) statistics showed.
The number of ER visits increased from about 7.05 million visits in 2014 to about 7.2 million in 2016 — the highest figure on record, the data showed.
To improve the efficiency of the nation’s hospital classification system and its patient referral system, the NHIA in April 2017 introduced a differential pricing mechanism to National Health Insurance (NHI) copayments for outpatient and ER visits.
As a result, ER visits dropped to about 7 million in 2017, and increased only slightly last year.
Last year, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital recorded the most visits at 206,657, followed by 187,527 visits at Taipei City Hospital branches and 173,777 at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, the data showed.
As for the most common reasons for ER visits, 439,970 were due to fever of unknown origin, followed by 430,113 visits due to abdominal or pelvic pain, and 252,618 due to dizziness, the data showed.
Sixty-seven percent of ER visits last year were classified as Level 3 in the ER triage system, followed by Level 4 at 14 percent and Level 2 at 10 percent.
The five-level triage system is used to quickly and accurately sort patients according to the seriousness of their illness or injury, with Level 1 being a life-threatening case that needs immediate care.
The differential pricing mechanism requires patients to pay a little more if they seek ER treatment for an illness or injury that is classified from Level 3 to Level 5.
Chang Kuo-sung (張國頌), an emergency physician at Mackay Memorial Hospital’s Taipei branch, was quoted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday as saying that people often find it difficult to assess the seriousness of their illness or injury, because dizziness can also be a sign of heart attack or stroke.
However, people should not use ERs for getting health exams, and if they are experiencing cold or diarrhea symptoms, they should observe them for a while, Chang said.
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