Admissions deemed potentially preventable include those for conditions for which hospitalization can be avoided if treated with appropriate outpatient care. These include diabetes, dehydration and other conditions or infections.
Other key findings in the report include:
• Rural hospitals had nearly twice as many potentially preventable admissions than urban hospitals.
• People from lower-income communities made up nearly one-third more potentially preventable admissions than patients from higher-income communities.
• 60 percent of the potentially preventable admissions were patients age 65 and older.
Read the AHRQ report on preventable hospital admissions.
Read other studies and analyses on hospitals:
–Americans’ Reluctance to Seek Treatment Hurting Publicly Traded Healthcare Firms
–CDC: Total Hospitalization Rate Leveling After 15 Years of Decline
–Drug-Related Hospitalizations of Older Adults More Than Doubled in 10 Years
