Maybe. Many physicians are bringing patients back for multiple visits rather than dealing with all of them during a single visit. Blame the HMOs:
People made more than 1 billion visits in 2004 to doctors’ offices, emergency rooms and hospital outpatient departments, according to the report from the National Center for Health Statistics.
This is an increase of 31 percent from 10 years before, while population rose only 11 percent during the same time, according to the center, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
