Inpatient Utilization Trends in Massachusettss Acute Care Hospitals

DATE: April 5, 2021

CHIA has published a quarterly update to the Massachusetts Acute Care Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data (FFY 2016-2019) report. Using interim data, this update offers timely insights into monthly inpatient utilization patterns, discharge characteristics, diagnoses, and procedures in the period leading up to and including the outbreak of COVID-19 (October 2019-December 2020) through a series of interactive dashboards. The update includes a summary and an accompanying databook.

Preliminary Findings:

• During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, discharges for many non-obstetric and non-COVID-19-related conditions, such as hip and knee replacements, declined considerably over this period.
  
  
• Behavioral health-related discharges made up more than one-third of all inpatient discharges.
   
• Hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 were more common among patients who were aged 65 years and older, Hispanic of any race, or Black, non-Hispanic.
  
  
• COVID-19 hospitalizations were also associated with higher in-hospital mortality, with nearly one in five of all hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 in April 2020.

This series will be updated as additional information becomes available. For more information about this quarterly update, or the full report on Acute Care Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data, please visit https://www.chiamass.gov/reports-on-massachusetts-acute-hospital-case-mix-database/.