Rate of hospital stays for ambulatory-care sensitive conditions per 100,000 Medicare enrollees. The 2023 County Health Rankings used data from 2020 for this measure. (CHR 2023)

Hospitalization for ambulatory-care sensitive conditions, diagnoses usually treatable in outpatient settings, suggests that quality outpatient care was not accessible. This measure may also represent a tendency to overuse emergency rooms and urgent care as a main source of care. Preventable hospital stays could be classified as both a quality and access measure, as some literature describes hospitalization rates for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions primarily as a proxy for access to primary health care. (CHR 2023)