Annual Report on Inpatient Care in Virginia Hospitals is Released
Hospital care is a vital component of the healthcare sector. Nationwide, inpatient and outpatient hospital care accounts for nearly one-third of the more than $3 trillion spent annually on all types of healthcare. A new report from William & Mary’s Schroeder Center for Health Policy provides a detailed description of the inpatient care provided in Virginia’s community hospitals during nearly 850,000 hospitalizations in 2015. Inpatient Hospital Utilization in the Commonwealth of Virginia: 2015 Data Analysis is intended to provide a compendium of useful data and statistics to researchers, organizations, and others who are interested in the provision of healthcare in hospitals around the state. The report offers a statistical depiction of the characteristics of patients (their average age, sex, race/ethnicity), the most common types of conditions behind inpatient hospitalizations, and the source of payment for inpatient hospitalizations, among other types of information.
According to the report, inpatient hospitalizations at Virginia community hospitals in 2015 accounted for $30.7 billion in total charges. Adults between the ages of 65 and 84 represent the single largest age group of patients admitted to Virginia’s hospitals, and some of the most common conditions responsible for inpatient hospitalizations are childbirth, septicemia, osteoarthritis, mood disorders, and congestive heart failure. Other findings from the report include:
- Non-chronic conditions account for 61% of all hospitalizations.
- Over 59,000 hospitalizations in Virginia’s community hospitals are for mental health conditions, and these hospitalizations result in over $1.1 billion in hospital charges.
- Medicare is the primary source of payment for 40% of discharges and private insurance is the primary source of payment for 34% of discharges.
The report was produced by staff and student researchers at the Schroeder Center for Health Policy. Contributors include Kate Archambault (CAMS applied statistics, '18) and Mitchell Cole (MPP, '17).
For more information, and to download the full report, please visit the Schroeder Center for Health Policy website. To tell us what you think of the report, please answer a few short questions at this link.