Preventable Hospital Events

This indicator reports the discharge rate (per 1,000 Medicare enrollees) for conditions that are ambulatory care sensitive (ACS). ACS conditions include pneumonia, dehydration, asthma, diabetes, and other conditions which could have been prevented if adequate primary care resources were available and accessed by those patients. This indicator is relevant because analysis of ACS discharges allows demonstrating a possible “return on investment” from interventions that reduce admissions (for example, for uninsured or Medicaid patients) through better access to primary care resources.
Report Area Total Medicare Part A Enrollees Ambulatory Care Sensitive Condition Hospital Discharges Ambulatory Care Sensitive Condition Discharge Rate
Franklin County, PA 19,429 831 42.8
Pennsylvania 1,185,487 61,097 51.5
United States 29,649,023 1,479,545 49.9
Note: This indicator is compared with the state average. Green - Better than state average, Red - Worse than state average.
Data Source: Dartmouth College Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. 2014. Source geography: County

Preventable Hospital Events by Year, 2008 through 2012
Rate of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Condition Discharges (per 1,000 Medicare Part A Beneficiaries)
Report Area 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Franklin County, PA 68.94 66.13 56.65 62.81 49.77
Pennsylvania 74.56 71.98 69.63 69.71 62.61
United States 70.5 68.16 66.58 64.92 59.29
Website Updated December 11 2017 Site Reviewed January 05 2018

Preventable Hospital Events

Data Background

The Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare is an online repository of health data and maps based on information included in the massive Medicare database maintained by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The project uses Medicare claims data in conjunction with other demographic data to provide information and analysis about national, regional, and local markets, as well as hospitals and their affiliated physicians. The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care is produced and maintained by The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

For more information about this source, including methodologies and definitions, refer to the Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare website.

Methodology

The Dartmouth Institute analyzes data drawn from enrollment and claims files from the Medicare program. Analysis is restricted to the fee-for-service population over age 65; HMO patients are not included. Indicator data tables express the rate of Medicare Part A patients discharged from the hospital for preventable / ambualtory care senstive (ACS) conditions like asthma, diabetes, pneumonia, or COPD, based on the following formula:
            Rate = [ACS Condition Discharges] / [Total Patients] *1,000
When appropriate, statistical adjustments are carried out to account for differences in age, race and sex.

Access to the complete methodology is available in the Dartmouth Institute’s Report of the Dartmouth Atlas Project .

Courtesy: Community Commons, <www.communitycommons.org>, November 2017