2019 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 173-180
Regional differences in admission rate were neither disclosed nor studied in the field of intensive care. The aim of this study is to clarify actual differences in admission rate and completion proportion of intensive care for elderly patients within each secondary healthcare area in Fukuoka prefecture. Moreover, we evaluated validity of current hospitalization rate and suitable demand of secondary healthcare area related to intensive care. Using healthcare claims data of the Fukuoka Late Elders’ Health Insurance in fiscal year 2016, we created database related to admission to ICU. We calculated admission rate and completion proportion by each residential area. These indices were also calculated by postoperative and non-operative cases. The admission rate ranged from 4.2 to 18.5. There were large differences in postoperative admission rate ranging from 3.0 to 10.0 and in non-operative admission rate ranging from 1.2 to 9.3. The completion proportion could be improved in most areas over 90% by reconstruction of secondary healthcare area, which was proposed in previous study. However, there were area under 50% of completion proportion because of lack of intensive care facilities. Our study revealed that there were regional differences in admission rate related to intensive care. Furthermore, improvements in completion proportion of intensive care by reconstruction of secondary healthcare area was different from that of previous study. Our findings suggest that the area differences in intensive care might be affected by supplier induced demand as well as by the distribution of resources for intensive care.
