According to a recent study:

• Admissions to Intensive Care Units (ICU's) from Emergency Departments (EDs) increased from 2.79 million in 2002/2003, to 4.14 million in 2008/2009
• This is an absolute increase of 48.8% and a mean biennial increase of 14.2%
• At the same time, overall ED visits experienced a mean biennial increase of only 5.8%
• Across all years, mean ED length of stay for ICU admissions was 304 minutes, and mean hospital length of stay was 6.6 days

Source: "National Growth in Intensive Care Unit Admissions From Emergency Departments in the United States from 2002 to 2009," Academic Emergency Medicine, abstract only, May 14, 2013, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acem.12134/abstract