Affiliation:
1. Mount Sinai School of Medicine
2. University of Minnesota
Abstract
From 1987–99, influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates among elderly Medicare beneficiaries increased by 300 percent and 500 percent, respectively. Despite these gains, annual rates of hospitalizations for pneumonia and influenza (P&I) have not decreased; rather, they have increased steadily. The authors investigate whether this paradoxical increase in hospitalization rates reflects an increasing burden of P&I or the effects of a changing healthcare environment. They find that from 1987–99, P&I hospitalizations per one thousand beneficiaries increased from 15.1 to 23.4. Of this increase, 23 percent was due to an aging Medicare population, 2.4 percent was due to increased rates of rehospitalization, and at most 5 percent was due to upcoding. There was no evidence that physicians were increasingly admitting patients with less complicated cases of P&I. The changing healthcare environment only partially explained the paradoxical increase in P&I hospitalizations. P&I appears to be an increasing burden to the elderly, despite increased vaccination rates.
Reference45 articles.
1. American Hospital Association. 1995. Annual survey of hospitals. Data set. Chicago: American Hospital Association.
Cited by
26 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献