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How to prevent visits to the ED
■ An occasional snapshot of current facts and trends in medicine.
Quick View. Posted Nov. 12, 2007
Better ambulatory care, access and patient management could avert as many as 4.4 million hospital stays a year.
Hospital costs for potentially preventable conditions, such as diabetes complications and congestive heart failure, totaled nearly $29 billion in 2004. There were 38.7 million hospitalizations overall in 2004, but admissions for a number of preventable conditions have gone down since 1997.
Source: "Trends in Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations Among Adults and Children, 1997-2004, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #36," Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, August












