Nationwide Frequency and Costs of Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations, 2006

Excerpt

This Statistical Brief presents national data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) on rates and total costs of potentially preventable hospitalizations. Distribution of the total costs by payer is also examined. Lastly, comparisons of potentially preventable hospitalization rates by median income level of patient’s ZIP Code are presented. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs) are used to identify hospitalizations for select chronic and acute conditions in adults and children for 2006. All differences between estimates noted in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level or better.