More Than Four Million Potentially Preventable Admissions Cost Hospitals Nearly $31 Billion in 2006

OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire Strategic Health Care News In 2006, about 4.4 million hospital admissions were due to potentially preventable congestive heart failure, bacterial pneumonia, diabetes complications, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, urinary tract infections, or dehydration. The conditions are considered to be potentially preventable with timely and effective ambulatory care or adequate patient self-management for the conditions. The aggregate cost of to treat these potentially preventable conditions was about $30.8 billion, which was about 10% of hospital expenditures in 2006. These are findings of a report entitled “Nationwide Frequency and Costs of Potentially Preventable . . .