Patient Characteristics by County and Facility

In 2022, 79 percent of all patients being seen in general acute care hospital settings in California were treated in the Emergency Department (ED) and 14 percent of the patients seen in the ED were admitted to inpatient care.

Why publish Patient Characteristics by County and Facility, 2022?#

The 2022 Patient Characteristics by County and Facility Data Visualization presents a calendar year overview of patients in general acute care hospital settings in California.

The data can viewed statewide, by county or counties, and by selecting up to two facilities for comparison. The data can be filtered by setting type: Ambulatory Surgery Only (AS Only), Emergency Department Only (ED Only), Inpatient Only and Inpatient from Emergency Department (Inpatient from ED).

Other reported data categories include Race/Ethnicity, Assigned Sex at Birth, Age Group and Expected Payer.  

Key Findings#

• The largest two Race/Ethnicity patient groups being served in California hospitals were Hispanic with 40 percent of all patients and White with 36 percent of all patients.  
• A majority of hospital patients were female, 54 percent.
• Medi-Cal was the largest expected payer group (38 percent), and private coverage was the second largest expected payer group (30 percent).

Make selections below to view patient characteristics from 2017 to 2022 by Age Group, Expected Payer type, Race/Ethnicity, and Assigned Sex at Birth for each facility.

How HCAI Created This Product#

To protect patient personal information, the California Health and Human Services Agency has adopted a policy of statistically masking or de-identifying sensitive data (CalHHS Data De-identification guidelines). Data from any group with less than 11 individuals are labeled and numerator groups with less than 100 were also labeled. In addition, groups are rounded to the tens place value. All percentages reflect these changes, not the original number of encounters.

Medicare includes: Medicare Advantage, traditional Medicare. Medi-Cal includes: Medi-Cal managed care, fee-for-service Medi-Cal. Private Coverage includes: employer group coverage, individual coverage (including coverage purchased through Covered California), organized charity payers (e.g., March of Dimes, Shriners). Uninsured includes: uninsured patients, as well as instances when insurance does not cover the treatment, or the patient would like to keep the medical procedure private.

*Other Payer includes: Workers’ Compensation, County Indigent Programs, any third-party payment not included in any other category, stays for which no payment will be required by the facility (e.g. courtesy patients), and stays for which no valid expected payer was reported to HCAI.

Additional Information#

Topic: Healthcare Utilization
Source Link: Healthcare Utilization – Patient Level Administrative Data
Citation: HCAI – Patient Discharge Data, Emergency Department Data, Ambulatory Surgery Data, Hospital Inpatient – Characteristics by Facility (Pivot Profile), 2017-2022
Temporal Coverage: 2017-2022
Spatial/Geographic Coverage: Statewide, County
Frequency: Annually