New data from HealthSparq Shows a Serious Spike Around the Holiday
PORTLAND, Ore., November 21, 2016— From severed fingers, to burned body parts, to over-drinking and food poisoning, the week of Thanksgiving means emergency rooms across the country see more action, according to HealthSparq.
Data from the company’s healthcare shopping tools in 2015 showed:
- Thanksgiving Day had five times the average daily searches for emergency-related care.
- Out of the entire week, nearly one-third of emergency-related searches were on the holiday itself.
- The entire week of Thanksgiving yields twice the year average of urgent care searches.
- Hospital-related searches are nearly two times as high during Thanksgiving Day. This includes anyone looking for hospital location and details, acute care needs, and more.
And after watching your drunk uncle chow down on turkey, you might not be surprised by these other Thanksgiving search trends:
- Searches related to gastroenterology rose 48 percent during Thanksgiving week. Gam Gam might have a thing or two to say about all those follow-up bills, too!
- Alcohol-related searches doubled during Thanksgiving week. From “alcohol rehab” to “alcohol recovery,” it looks like Thanksgiving is prime time for interventions!
“From getting too drunk, to eating too much at Thanksgiving dinner, HealthSparq is happy to confirm once and for all that yes, holidays like this do have the potential to cause health problems!” said Torben Nielsen, senior vice president of product and strategy at HealthSparq.
This HealthSparq data is based on healthcare shopping behavior for HealthSparq users throughout 2015. These Thanksgiving-related data points are compared against the average daily search rates throughout the year, or the total number of searches for Thanksgiving week. HealthSparq serves 71 health plans and their 74 million members nationwide, and the company looks forward to discovering which healthcare search trends we see at this year’s Thanksgiving dinner, which is sure to be eventful.
