ArticleAnnals of family medicine
Strategies for reducing potentially avoidable hospitalizations for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions.
Article in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 81 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
81 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Drivers of Emergency Department Use Among Oncology Patients in the Era of Novel Cancer Therapeutics: A Systematic Review.The oncologist · 2023Pooled it
- Older People's Help-Seeking Behaviors in Rural Contexts: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of the magnitude and cause of geographic variation in unplanned hospital admission rates and length of stay for ambulatory care sensitive conditions.BMC health services research · 2015Pooled it
- A tailored programme to implement recommendations for multimorbid patients with polypharmacy in primary care practices-process evaluation of a cluster randomized trial.Implementation science : IS · 2017Trial
- Impact of a tailored program on the implementation of evidence-based recommendations for multimorbid patients with polypharmacy in primary care practices-results of a cluster-randomized controlled trial.Implementation science : IS · 2017Trial
- Validation of predictive factors for hospital admission in elderly patients transported by emergency medical services: a retrospective observational study.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Observational
- An evidence-informed Delphi study of ambulatory care sensitive conditions in China: a policy tool to assess primary care performance.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2025Article
- High Hospitalization Rates and Risk Factors Among Frail Patients With Cirrhosis: A 10-year Population-based Cohort Study.Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association · 2025Article
- Enhancing Care of Young Febrile Infants in Hawai'i: A Quality Improvement Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Hospitalizations and Procedures.Hawai'i journal of health & social welfare · 2025Article
- Continuity of care in a pandemic: an observational study in GP-centred healthcare in Germany.BMJ open quality · 2025Observational
- Development of the China's list of ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs): a study protocol.Global health research and policy · 2024Article
- Delirium Due to Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations Among Older Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2024Article
- The Impact of an Undergraduate Community-Based Medical Education Program in a Japanese Urban City.Cureus · 2024Article
- Article
- Hospital-associated disability due to avoidable hospitalizations among older adults.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Trends in the Quality of Primary Care and Acute Care in Korea From 2008 to 2020: A Cross-sectional Study.Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Uihakhoe chi · 2023Article
- Primary and secondary data in emergency medicine health services research - a comparative analysis in a regional research network on multimorbid patients.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Observational
- Expanding outpatient benefits package can reduce diabetes-related avoidable hospitalizations.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The impact of ambulatory care spending, continuity and processes of care on ambulatory care sensitive hospitalizations.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2022Article
21 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeHospitalizations for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) are seen as potentially avoidable with optimal primary care. Little is known, however, about how primary care physicians rate these hospitalizations and whether and how they could be avoided. This study explores the complex causality of such hospitalizations from the perspective of primary care physicians.
methodsWe conducted semistructured interviews with 12 primary care physicians from 10 primary care clinics in Germany regarding 104 hospitalizations of 81 patients with ACSCs at high risk of rehospitalization.
resultsParticipating physicians rated 43 (41%) of the 104 hospitalizations to be potentially avoidable. During the interviews the cause of hospitalization fell into 5 principal categories: system related (eg, unavailability of ambulatory services), physician related (eg, suboptimal monitoring), medical (eg, medication side effects), patient related (eg, delayed help-seeking), and social (eg, lack of social support). Subcategories frequently associated with physicians' rating of hospitalizations for ACSCs as potentially avoidable were after-hours absence of the treating physician, failure to use ambulatory services, suboptimal monitoring, patients' fearfulness, cultural background and insufficient language skills of patients, medication errors, medication nonadherence, and overprotective caregivers. Comorbidities and medical emergencies were frequent causes attributed to ACSC-based hospitalizations that were rated as being unavoidable.
conclusionsPrimary care physicians rated a significant proportion of hospitalizations for ACSCs to be potentially avoidable. Strategies to avoid these hospitalizations may target after-hours care, optimal use of ambulatory services, intensified monitoring of high-risk patients, and initiatives to improve patients' willingness and ability to seek timely help, as well as patients' medication adherence.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.