Preventable Hospitalizations for Acute Conditions
In 2020, nearly 20 percent of the 217,736 preventable hospitalizations in adults occurred for an acute condition. With access to high-quality outpatient care, these 42,450 hospitalizations may have been prevented.
Why are Acute Condition PQIs Important?
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs) measure potentially avoidable hospitalizations for two acute conditions: community-acquired pneumonia and urinary tract infection, at a Statewide and County level. In addition to the individual acute conditions, there is also a composite indicator. Lower hospitalization rates for these acute conditions are indicators of greater access to outpatient care.
The PQIs provide a good starting point for assessing the quality of health services in a region. They can identify gaps in primary care access or outpatient services in a community and highlight potential health care quality problem areas that might need further investigation.
These Acute Condition PQIs are part of a broader collection that includes Diabetes PQIs and Chronic Condition PQIs.
Which Counties May Have Greater Unmet Acute Condition Outpatient Needs?
The Prevention Quality Acute Composite indicator (PQI #91) includes hospitalizations for community-acquired pneumonia or urinary tract infection. Greater access to care is reflected by lower hospitalization rates. In this visualization, counties with a higher hospitalization rate are distinguished from those with a lower hospitalization rate, indicating a potential unmet outpatient care need.
Note: The risk-adjusted rates are age, sex, and poverty adjusted and are calculated per 100,000 state or county population. The PQI software calculates the rates regardless of the number of cases available. Rates based on only a few cases should be evaluated with greater scrutiny.
How do Individual Acute Condition Indicators Compare Among Counties?
The individual Prevention Quality Acute Condition indicators allow county-to-county comparisons for each of the measures. This level of granularity can help determine the focus of acute condition intervention(s) that are needed in a county.
Note: The risk-adjusted rates are age, sex, and poverty adjusted and are calculated per 100,000 state or county population. The PQI software calculates the rates regardless of the number of cases available. Rates based on only a few cases should be interpreted with greater scrutiny.
How Have Individual Counties’ Acute Condition Hospitalizations Changed Over Time?
This visualization shows differences in the Prevention Quality Acute Composite (PQI #91), Community-Acquired Pneumonia (PQI #11), and Urinary Tract Infection (PQI #12) hospitalization rates from year to year, which can be used to assess whether the rates are increasing or decreasing. The visualization also shows the changes in each of the individual acute condition measures. Substantial decreases in hospitalizations and, thus, hospitalization rates for Community-Acquired Pneumonia and Urinary Tract Infection were noted in 2020. The impact of COVID may have been the primary reason for the decreases in these rates as overall inpatient hospitalizations were down 10.0% from 2019. Changes in rates may also be due to the implementation of programmatic and policy interventions, or a lack of such interventions.
Note: The risk-adjusted rates are age, sex, and poverty adjusted and are calculated per 100,000 state or county population. The PQI software calculates the rates regardless of the number of cases available. Rates based on only a few cases should be interpreted with greater scrutiny.
Which Acute Condition PQI Measures are Included in this Analysis?
This analysis primarily focuses on the Prevention Quality Acute Composite (PQI #91), which includes the following two indicators:
- Community-Acquired Pneumonia (PQI #11) – a bacterial lung infection that can cause breathing problems and other symptoms and is acquired outside of the hospital setting
- Urinary Tract Infection (PQI #12) – an infection in any part of the urinary system (kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra)
Other PQI Visualizations:
Additional Information
Topic: Healthcare Quality
Temporal Coverage: 2016-2020
Spatial/Geographic Coverage: Statewide and County
Frequency: Annual
Source Link: Rates of Preventable Hospitalizations for Selected Medical Conditions by County (LGHC Indicator)
Citation: HCAI Patient Discharge Data; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Prevention Quality Indicators, SAS Software, Version v2021 (2016-2020, ICD-10-CM).