Behind the Curtain at the ER

Nearly 100 million visits (96,545,000 to be exact) were made to American ERs in 1995, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Here are more facts and figures about our emergency room visits:

* Average number of visits per 100 people: 36.9

* Most frequent principal reason for visit: stomach and abdominal pain, 5.9 million visits

* Number of injury-related visits: 37.2 million

* Number of urgent visits: 44.2 million

* Type of drug most frequently mentioned: Tylenol, 9.6 million times

* Most frequent source of payment: insurance (private or provided through employer), 21% of visits

Source: National Center for Health Statistics