ArticleBMC health services research2014
Avoidable hospitalizations in Switzerland: a small area analysis on regional variation, density of physicians, hospital supply and rurality.
Article in BMC health services research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Using Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions to Assess Primary Health Care Performance during Disasters: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Article
- Age- and disability-based trends in potentially preventable hospitalizations: evidence from nationwide claims data in Korea.Epidemiology and health · 2026Article
- Assessment of potentially avoidable hospitalizations in Ningxia, China: application of a China-specific ACSCs list.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Hospitalizations and inpatient resource consumption of patients suffering from chronic disease - Past trend and forecast for Switzerland.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Imbalanced access to pediatric primary care in Switzerland: geographic differences and modeled future challenges.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
- Twenty-year trends of potentially avoidable hospitalizations for hypertension in Switzerland.Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2024Article
- Impact of nursing home admission on in-hospital mortality and morbidity and length of stay: A case-control analysis.Surgery in practice and science · 2024Article
- Performing up to Nordic principles? Geographic and socioeconomic equity in ambulatory care sensitive conditions among older adults in capital areas of Denmark, Finland and Sweden in 2000-2015.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Mapping Health Disparities in 11 High-Income Nations.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations by Asthma and COPD in Switzerland from 1998 to 2018: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 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
- Trends in avoidable hospitalizations in a developed City in eastern China: 2015 to 2018.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions: What conditions make inter-country comparisons possible?Health policy OPEN · 2021Article
- Emergency hospital admissions among older adults living alone in the community.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Regional variation of potentially avoidable hospitalisations in Switzerland: an observational study.BMC health services research · 2021Observational
- Economic and financial crisis based on Troika's intervention and potentially avoidable hospitalizations: an ecological study in Portugal.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Defining ambulatory care sensitive conditions for adults in Portugal.BMC health services research · 2020Article
- Geographic variation in preventable hospitalisations across Canada: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2020Article
- Inefficiencies in a healthcare system with a regulatory split of power: a spatial panel data analysis of avoidable hospitalisations in Austria.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAvoidable hospitalizations (AH) are hospital admissions for diseases and conditions that could have been prevented by appropriate ambulatory care. We examine regional variation of AH in Switzerland and the factors that determine AH.
methodsWe used hospital service areas, and data from 2008-2010 hospital discharges in Switzerland to examine regional variation in AH. Age and sex standardized AH were the outcome variable, and year of admission, primary care physician density, medical specialist density, rurality, hospital bed density and type of hospital reimbursement system were explanatory variables in our multilevel poisson regression.
resultsRegional differences in AH were as high as 12-fold. Poisson regression showed significant increase of all AH over time. There was a significantly lower rate of all AH in areas with more primary care physicians. Rates increased in areas with more specialists. Rates of all AH also increased where the proportion of residences in rural communities increased. Regional hospital capacity and type of hospital reimbursement did not have significant associations. Inconsistent patterns of significant determinants were found for disease specific analyses.
conclusionThe identification of regions with high and low AH rates is a starting point for future studies on unwarranted medical procedures, and may help to reduce their incidence. AH have complex multifactorial origins and this study demonstrates that rurality and physician density are relevant determinants. The results are helpful to improve the performance of the outpatient sector with emphasis on local context. Rural and urban differences in health care delivery remain a cause of concern in Switzerland.
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