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WISH Query: Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits (2002-2015)

(Data Updated May 2019)

Injury-related emergency department visits data query:

This module provides data on the injury-related emergency department (ED) visits of Wisconsin residents from 2002 through 2015. This data subset is limited to visits with an ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification) principal diagnosis code related to an injury or an external-cause code related to injury. See Technical Notes for more detail on ICD-9-CM and other technical details related to this data query.

Step 1. Select "treated and released only" or "all visits."

We recommend the "Treated and Released ONLY" filter (the default selection) because it prevents counting a health care visit more than once. Patients transferred to hospitals for inpatient stays or those who died while in the ED are not included. This keeps the effects of injury from appearing artificially high. Selecting "ALL visits" will show the total volume of visits that EDs experience due to injury, including those visits that resulted in a transfer to inpatient hospitals or death in the ED.

Step 2. Select a measure of ED visits

This is the observed count of visits.

This is the observed rate and is displayed as the number of visits per 100,000 residents. Please use this rate when describing injury among your population of interest. This rate should not be used to compare different populations or time periods to each other as we have not adjusted these rates to account for differences in age composition across populations.

We recommend that you select age-adjusted rates when making comparisons between two populations (for example, Southern Region injury rates compared to Northern Region injury rates), or two different time periods (for example, 2010 injury rates compared to 2015). Age-adjustment accounts for differences in age composition across populations and time. We use the Standard U.S. Population for Year 2000 for age-adjustment.

Rank is based on number of ED visits and is not inclusive of all injuries. Injury cause categories in this option are mutually exclusive. If this option is selected, Steps 3, 7 and 8 will be skipped.

Step 3. Select ONLY ONE option from the list below.

The specific injury options listed below do not include ALL possible injury causes or manners. These options are also NOT mutually exclusive (for example, a motor vehicle injury may also be classified as a traumatic brain injury). The first valid external cause of injury code is reviewed and determines how the ED visit will be classified. The exception is for traumatic brain injury (TBI), which includes review of all diagnosis codes; cause of TBI is based on first valid e-code.

OR choose one of the following manners of firearm injury (not inclusive of all manners):

OR choose one of the following:

OR choose one of the following methods of self-harm injury (not inclusive of all methods; more than one method could have been used though counts are based on first valid e-code.):

OR choose one of the following manners of TBI injury (not inclusive of all manners):

OR choose one of the following types of MV injury (not inclusive of all types):

Step 4. Choose Area of Patient's Residence

Hold down the control (Ctrl) key to select multiple counties, regions, or regional trauma council areas.

Note: To see results for individual areas, choose "Geographic Area" as a ROW variable or COLUMN variable in Step 7 or 8 below.

See the region map, or regional trauma advisory council map.

Step 5. Choose Year(s)

Choose the year in which the patient was discharged.

Note: WISH suppresses counts in cells that are less than 5 to comply with data privacy guidelines. Combine data years to increase cell counts.

* Due to changes in the International Classification of Diseases-Clinical Modification that occurred in October 2015, 2015 counts and rates are estimates based on data from October 2014 through September 2015.

Step 6. Choose Age, Sex, Race, and Ethnicity (Optional)

Sex
Rates will not be provided for Other or Unknown race. Race data only available for 2013 and later.
Rates will not be provided for Unknown ethnicity. Ethnicity only available for 2013 and later.

Step 7. Choose a Row Variable

Row Variable Note: cannot be used with a "Ranked Causes" query.

Step 8. Choose a Column Variable (Optional)

Column Variable Note: cannot be used with a "Ranked Causes" or "Age-adjusted Rates" query.

To send your request for data now.

To clear all selections and start over.

Glossary

 
Last revised June 24, 2026