Burden of hospitalizations primarily due to uncontrolled diabetes: implications of inadequate primary health care in the United States.
This study describes the burden of potentially preventable hospitalizations primarily due to uncontrolled diabetes. Uncontrolled diabetes, if not managed properly, often leads to biochemical imbalances that can cause acute life-threatening events and hospitalizations. Since diabetes management relies heavily on ambulatory care, hospitalizations with uncontrolled diabetes largely reflect the quality of the primary health care provided outside the hospital setting. Therefore, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) selected uncontrolled diabetes as a prevention quality indicator (PQI) where timely and appropriate ambulatory care would have prevented a hospitalization (1). To improve primary health care, it is essential to track an outcome of current status of prevention quality indicators. However, the extent of potentially preventable hospitalizations associated with uncontrolled diabetes and its economic burden in the U.S. remains under-investigated.