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discharges
Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions
Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSC’s) are medical problems that are potentially preventable. For example, hypertension (high blood pressure) is a condition that can be treated outside of a hospital. With proper medication and management of care, most people should not need to be hospitalized for hypertension. For ACSC’s a hospital admission shows us that the patient probably did not get care that worked. Admission to the hospital in this situation is a failure of our community health care system. Rarely is it a doctor or hospital failure.
The Maine Quality Forum sees this as a community health failure. It is likely due to problems with access to care, the cost of prescriptions, and personal behavior. Patients need to have insurance to have full access to the doctor’s office. Patients need to have money and insurance to have all the medications they may need. Some communities have a larger number of citizens who smoke which leads to care in the hospital.
This chart shows that there are communities that may be more successful than others. They are the shorter bars in groups of the same color. There is a small chance that the specific community information may be off by a little.
The Maine Quality Forum urges you to begin a community conversation about how and where your community treats preventable medical problems. A good place to start is with your physicians, family, and friends.
