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Vital Signs

Facts & Figures

The doctor is in (demand)

1.1 billion
Number of visits to U.S. doctors' offices, emergency rooms, and hospital outpatient departments in 2006

26%
Increase in the number of such visits between 1996 and 2006

11%
Increase in the U.S. population between 1996 and 2006

5 out of 10
Proportion of all visits to doctors' offices made by people with chronic medical conditions, such as arthritis or diabetes

7 out of 10
Proportion of all medical visits that resulted in at least one medication being provided, prescribed, or renewed

2.6 billion
Number of prescriptions written nationwide in 2006

478,337
Number of outpatient and emergency department visits at Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Lebanon, N.H., site in fiscal year 2006

1.2 million
Number of visits at Dartmouth-Hitchcock's other sites in FY06

123,624
Number of prescriptions filled at DHMC's outpatient pharmacy in FY06

SOURCES: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION, DHMC


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