About Hospital Utilization

About Avoidable Hospital Stays

About County Rates of Hospital Use

About Hospital Utilization

What is hospital utilization?

Hospital utilization means use of hospital services. It includes information on:

Why should I look at information about hospital utilization and how can it help me?

You may be interested in a specific medical condition or procedure and would like to get details. For example, you or a loved one may need hip replacement surgery. You may want to look at:

About Avoidable Hospital Stays

What are avoidable hospital stays?

An avoidable hospital stay is one that might have been avoided with better medical care outside of the hospital. For example, a diabetes patient who receives good care from her primary care physician might not need a hospital stay for diabetes complications. Hospital stays like these are not always avoidable, but they are potentially avoidable with good quality health care.

Information about avoidable hospital stays is about communities, not hospitals. It is based on where patients live, not on where hospitals are located. High rates of avoidable hospital stays can point to possible breakdowns in health care in the community.

Why should I look at information about avoidable hospital stays and how can it help me?

This information can be used by policy makers and public health workers. It can help them identify areas that might have problems with outpatient care and what types of problems these are. The information includes estimates of cost savings if you reduce avoidable hospital stays by 10%, 20%, 30% or more. This can help motivate efforts to improve community health care and reduce avoidable hospital stays.

About County Rates of Hospital Use

What are county rates of hospital use?

The county rates show use of hospital services by county, based on where patients live. County rates include information on:

Why should I look at information about county rates of hospital use and how can it help me?

This information can be used by policy makers and public health workers. It can help them identify areas whose residents have high rates of hospital use for particular conditions and procedures. The information is reported by county based on the patient’s residence, not the hospital location. It tells you, for example, the county of origin for patients with lung cancer or for patients receiving back surgery. This information can help motivate efforts to address the causes of particular medical problems such as cancer, injury, or infections.