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Visits to emergency rooms in Lane County increased 6.3 percent between 2005 and 2007 — nearly triple the rate of population growth. And the number of visits from patients with alcohol and mental health issues saw double-digit increases during that period, according to a study released Wednesday.

The study was done on behalf of the 100 Percent Access Healthcare Initiative, a project of United Way of Lane County that’s working to increase the availability of health care to the uninsured.

“This data helps us think through which patients do we need to connect to which resources,” said Ken Provencher, the initiative’s chairman and the CEO of PacificSource Health Plans, a Springfield health insurer.

Emergency departments are like the “canary in the coal mine that reflects the problems and successes in the entire health care system,” said Dr. Robert Lowe, one of the study’s authors. Lowe is a professor at the Center for Policy & Research in Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

Researcher and study co-author Erin Owen said it’s not clear why visits increased as much as they did, but it’s possible the county doesn’t have enough primary-care physicians, which would mean even insured patients have trouble getting in to see a doctor. Other possible factors could include the availability of mental health and alcohol treatment services and the general aging of the population, she said.

Studies have shown that increased availability of primary care in a community correlates to decreased visits to the ER, Lowe said.

The study, which was done by Eugene-based Health Policy Research Northwest, examined all visits to emergency rooms at Sacred Heart Medical Center, University District, in Eugene, McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield, Cottage Grove Community Hospital and PeaceHarbor Hospital in Florence.

The number of visits to the ER increased by 6.3 percent, to 103,969, from 2005 to 2007. The number of patients without health insurance increased by 5.7 percent during that time, to 21,726 in 2007. In 2005, 19.2 percent of all emergency room visits were from people without insurance. This rose to 20.9 percent in 2007. Visits from patients with commercial insurance decreased 6.2 percent, to 24.3 percent of all ER visits, while visits from those on the Oregon Health Plan decreased 2.5 percent, to 19.4 percent of all visits. The population of Lane County grew 2.2 percent in that same period.

The charges billed by hospitals for those visits to the emergency room increased 33 percent, from about $274 million in 2005 to $365 million in 2007, the study found. Only 15 percent of ER visits led to hospitalization, but those hospital admissions accounted for 74 percent of total charges.

Lane County ERs saw sharp increases in visits from several groups of patients.

Visits by patients with mental health issues increased 30.6 percent, from 12.1 percent in 2005 to 15.8 percent of all visits in 2007. Statewide, ER visits by patients with mental health diagnoses is slightly more than 7 percent.

From 2005 to 2007, visits by patients with alcohol problems increased 24.3 percent to 4,764. Statewide, about 2.5 percent of ER visits involve patients with alcohol problems.

The study authors said the increase in alcohol-related visits represents “a clear and alarming increase.”

Visits by uninsured county residents were three times as likely to be alcohol-related compared to visits by patients with insurance.

The authors recommended that the health care coalition should consider “targeted intervention” to reduce alcohol use as well as programs to better integrate counseling into existing community prevention services.

Diabetes-related visits increased sharply as well, going from 7,859 in 2005 to 10,262 in 2007, an increase of 23.8 percent. The number of patients between ages 10 and 17 with diabetes who showed up in the ER increased 50 percent, to 67 in 2007.

Injury and poisoning are the most common reasons that people visit the emergency room, accounting for more than one in four visits.

On Wednesday, an injured finger brought Gene Loewen of Springfield to McKenzie-Willamette’s ER. He was repairing a rock wall at his Potato Hill home when he tried to wedge a 50-pound rock into a gap and instead wedged the index finger on his right hand between the rocks.

Doctors and nurses cleaned up the wound and scheduled an X-ray to determine whether the finger was broken. Either way, the treatment would be the same: a splint, pain medicine and time, Dr. Eric Spencer said.

On the web

To view the executive summary of the study, visit hprnw.org/projects.html