Preventable Inpatient Visit (PQI) Rates for Older Adults by Race & Ethnicity

This chart displays the age-sex adjusted visit rate (per 100,000 population) of potentially preventable inpatient visits (PQI) for those aged 65+ within the Finger Lakes region. The dark gray bar represents the PQI visit rate for the total population aged 18+, and includes all races and ethnicities. A higher PQI rate is an indicator that people are not getting needed outpatient preventive care, which then results in hospital visits for health matters that could have otherwise been prevented or treated in the outpatient setting. The first item to note is that, regardless of race or ethnicity, the rates for all three older adult populations are significantly greater than the rate for the 18+ population (approximately 3-6 times higher depending on which group). When comparing solely amongst the three groups of older adults, Black non-Hispanic older adults had the highest rates (1.3 times that of Hispanic older adults and 2 times that of White non-Hispanic older adults). As experienced during the pandemic, avoiding preventable hospitalization for older adults is critical. The lack of equitable prevention services has real consequences for individual patients, population groups and the health care system. This data visualization is part of the Sage II Commission Report.