Heart Failure Hospitalizations Lowest in Mountain States

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WEDNESDAY, Aug. 18 (HealthDay News) -- The Mountain states region of the United States had the lowest average rate of potentially avoidable hospitalization for heart failure in 2006, according to a U.S. government report released Wednesday.

The rate in this region, which includes Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, was 266 admissions per 100,000 people.

Potentially avoidable hospitalizations are admissions for care of chronic illnesses that could be prevented if patients had good quality outpatient care. Patients who receive poor quality outpatient care are at increased risk for complications that require hospitalization, explained the authors of the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The next lowest rate of potentially avoidable hospital admissions for heart failure was in the Pacific states (California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska), at 316.5 admissions per 100,000, according to the report. The other lowest rates were:

• West North Central (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas) at 362 per 100,000.
• New England (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine) at 364 per 100,000.

The report said the highest rates were in:

• East South Central region (Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky) at 583 per 100,000.
• East North Central region (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) at 502 per 100,000.
• West South Central (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana) at 496 per 100,000.
• Southeast (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware) at 460 per 100,000.
• Mid-Atlantic (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania) at 430 per 100,000.

The report is based on data in the AHRQ State Snapshots, which provides state-specific health care quality information.

-- Robert Preidt

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SOURCE: U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, news release, Aug. 18, 2010