CA Reports Preventable Hospitalizations

That may indicate that adding asthma clinics in that area might be a good idea, Kassis says. Likewise, some areas of the state are showing high hypertension rates as well as obesity rates, which may be helped with improved healthcare access.

In addition to pediatric asthma, hypertension, chest pain, pediatric gastroenteritis and COPD, the report lists rates of preventable hospitalizations for perforated appendix, congestive heart failure, dehydration, bacterial pneumonia, urinary tract infection, adult asthma and lower extremity amputation as a complication of diabetes and short-term complications from diabetes.

Kassis says that over time, more hospital-and county-specific information will be fine-tuned, and will be sent to county public health departments to better identify local needs for primary care.

So far, Kassis says, California is the third state in the nation to list such data, joining Maine and Hawaii. But more are expected to use a tool offered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that will eventually allow states to be compared with each other and with the national average.