Ambulatory Care Sensitive Hospitalizations

Ambulatory Care Sensitive hospitalizations such as asthma, diabetes or dehydration are hospitalizations for conditions where timely and effective ambulatory care can decrease hospitalizations by preventing the onset of an illness or condition, controlling an acute episode of an illness or managing a chronic disease or condition.

High rates of Ambulatory Care Sensitive hospitalizations in a community may be an indicator of a lack of or failure of prevention efforts, a primary care resource shortage, poor performance of primary health care delivery systems, or other factors that create barriers to obtaining timely and effective care.

It should be noted that the ICD-9-CM diagnosis coding for a given Ambulatory Care Sensitive condition may not be the same as the coding for this disease in general. For example, Ambulatory Care Sensitive hospitalizations for diabetes excludes diabetes with renal, ophthalmic and neurological manifestations. In addition, age restrictions and additional diagnoses or procedure requirements for some Ambulatory Care Sensitive conditions further distinguish these Ambulatory Care Sensitive conditions from the general hospitalizations. Please consult the ICD-9-CM Ambulatory Care Sensitive hospitalization codes for details.

To view detailed information for your community, select from the tables for trends for 1993-2009, trends for the leading diagnoses for 2004-2008 versus 2009 by age group, age group comparisons for 2009, leading diagnoses for your community for 2009, and age group comparisons for 2009 for specific diagnoses. The community-level tables provide information on Ambulatory Care Sensitive hospitalizations for Michigan's counties, local health departments, and the state.

To view summary information on Ambulatory Care Sensitive hospitalizations across communities, select from comparisons for 'Counties' or 'Health Departments'.

We hope that you find this material useful.