Características de la hospitalización evitable en España

Background and objective: Hospitalizations that could have been prevented with a timely and effective ambulatory care are known as avoidable hospitalizations (AH). The measure of AH is an indicator of the quality of primary health care centers. The objective of this study was to determine the factors that influence the level of AH at the Spanish public hospitals. Material and method: We identified the characteristics of hospitalised patient as AH. We studied the total hospitalizations in public hospitals of Spain in 2000 related to AH. Results: AH admissions were the 15.8% of total in Spanish hospitals and the 16.6% of hospital stays. Patients' mean age was high, 54 years, males (age-adjusted OR = 1.54) with a large length of stay and presurgery stay, higher comorbidity (0.63 [0.8]), public financing, and admission was basically emergency-caused and in high complexity hospitals. There is a direct relationship between frequency of AH and hospital complexity. Conclusions: The control of AH is very important because its repercussion on the total hospitalary case-mix. We observe an inducing effect of the hospital offer because the hospital capacity increase the number of AH admissions.