• This is a Prevention Quality Indicator (PQI) administrative measure. PQIs are a set of measures that can be used with hospital inpatient discharge data to identify quality of care for "ambulatory care sensitive conditions." These are conditions for which good outpatient care can potentially prevent the need for hospitalization or for which early intervention can prevent complications or more severe disease. 
• The annual reported rate captures activity during the stated measurement year (MY).

The number of inpatient hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma per 100,000 enrollee months for Medicaid enrollees ages 40 and older.

DVHA recognized that there was a sharp drop in this measure for the 40-64 age range, from 18.2 in 2016 down to 5.7 in 2017. The DVHA Data Unit double checked how the data was pulled & confirmed the numerator & denominator. The programmatic side was investigated and it is anecdotally reported that many of Vermont's Blueprint Community Collaboratives had quality improvement initiatives on this topic. These initiatives may have contributed to the drop in the rate.

Last updated:  August 2021