Table I.

Characteristics of Patients with Multiple Acute Care Visits for Sickle Cell Disease in Eight States, 2005–2006.

	Multi-visit*		P value
	Multiple Hospitals N=5,284 (%)	Single Hospital N=8,249 (%)
Patient Characteristics
Age (years)			P≤0.001
1–9	547 (10.4)	2,117 (25.7)
10–17	595 (11.3)	1, 771 (21.5)
18–30	2, 298 (43.5)	2, 122 (25.7)
31–45	1, 332 (25.2)	1, 503 (18.2)
46–64	476 (9.0)	671 (8.1)
65+	36(0.7)	65 (0.8)
Primary Expected Payer			P≤0.001
Public	3, 652 (69.1)	5, 243 (63.6)
Private	953 (18.0)	2, 074 (25.1)
Uninsured	516 (9.8)	627 (7.6)
Other/Unknown	163 (3.5)	305 (3.7)
Gender†			P≤0.001
Female	2, 933 (55.5)	4, 207 (51.0)
Male	2, 188 (41.4)	3, 737 (45.3)
Urban/Rural by Zip Code of			P≤ 0.001
Residence**
Urban	4, 977 (94.2)	7,817 (94.8)
Rural	144 (2.7)	122 (1.5)

^*Multi-visits represents patients who made more than one visit for an acute sickle cell-related diagnoses over the two year study period;

^**some data missing