Clinical profiles of hospital discharge rates in local communities.
Using comprehensive 1980 data for hospitalization of the 9 million citizens of Michigan's lower peninsula, the authors have previously demonstrated that the discharge rates of local communities differ by a range of 2 to 1. This article seeks to identify differences in the clinical profile of high-use compared to low-use communities. Population-based rates and percentages of total discharges were studied for major clinical activity groups, such as cardiovascular disease, frequent diagnoses, rarely occurring diagnoses, short- and long-stay diagnoses, certain surgical procedures, and major organ groups of the diagnostic classification system. Although high-use communities tend to admit proportionately fewer surgical cases and proportionately more nonsurgical cases, few other such patterns could be demonstrated.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007902:Length of Stay; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010361:Patients / Q000145:classification; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000706:statistics & numerical data