A common denominator: calculating hospitalization rates for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions in California.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Chronic health conditions are considered ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSC) when the illness is controllable with effective and timely outpatient care that can potentially prevent the need for hospitalizations. Hospitalization rates for ACSC serve as an indicator of the access to and quality of primary care for chronic conditions. Standard methods to calculate hospitalization rates incorporate the total population in the denominator instead of the total population at risk for a hospitalization. By accounting for people with an ACSC, this study compares standard methods to a disease prevalence-adjusted method to highlight the importance of adjusting for ACSC prevalence when using ACSC hospitalizations in assessing primary care outpatient services.

Methods

SUBMITTER: Lui CK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3181231 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature