Table 1.

Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Patient Visits to the UCC, Before and After Implementation of the OU^*

Characteristic	Before Implementation†	After Implementation‡
Total No.	10,186	10,593
Median age, years	62	62
Male sex, %	47	45
Ethnicity, %§
Hispanic	7	7
Non-Hispanic	90	91
Unknown	2	2
Race, %§
White	75	75
Black	12	11
Asian	7	7
Other/unknown∥	7	7
Common chief complaints, %§
Fever	12	10
Abdominal pain	8	8
Uncontrolled back or limb pain	8	8
Dyspnea	6	6
Neurologic abnormality	6	6

Abbreviations: OU, observation unit; UCC, Urgent Care Center.

^*Includes all nonsurgical patients presenting to the UCC age ≥ 18 years.

^†Pre-OU implementation period: July 9, 2012–December 31, 2012.

^‡Post-OU implementation period: July 9, 2013–December 31, 2013.

^§Percentages may not add to 100% because of rounding.

^∥Other/unknown includes: Native American, Native Hawaiian, other, unknown.