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Acute Inpatient

The acute inpatient care setting is one of the biggest drivers of health care expenditure and as a result a primary target for research and analysis.

Acute Inpatient Visits​

Here we show a variety of different ways to analyze the total number of acute inpatient visits.

Total Number of Acute IP Visits
select count(1)
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
Total Number of Acute IP Visits by Month
select 
  date_part(year, encounter_end_date) || lpad(date_part(month, encounter_end_date),2,0) as year_month
, count(1) as count
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1
order by 1
Total Number of Acute IP Visits by Admit Type
select
  admit_type_code
, admit_type_description
, count(1) as count
, cast(100 * count(distinct encounter_id)/sum(count(distinct encounter_id)) over() as numeric(38,1)) as percent
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1,2
order by 1,2
Total Number of Acute IP Visits by Discharge Disposition
select
  discharge_disposition_code
, discharge_disposition_description
, count(1) as count
, cast(100 * count(distinct encounter_id)/sum(count(distinct encounter_id)) over() as numeric(38,1)) as percent
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1,2
order by 1,2
Total Number of Acute IP Visits by DRG
select
  ms_drg_code
, ms_drg_description
, count(1) as count
, cast(100 * count(distinct encounter_id)/sum(count(distinct encounter_id)) over() as numeric(38,1)) as percent
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1,2
order by 4 desc
Total Number of Acute IP Visits by Facility
select
  a.facility_npi
, b.provider_organization_name
, count(1) as count
, cast(100 * count(distinct encounter_id)/sum(count(distinct encounter_id)) over() as numeric(38,1)) as percent
from core.encounter a
left join terminology.provider b
 on a.facility_npi = b.npi
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1,2
order by 1,2

Acute Inpatient Visits PKPY​

If you have claims data, and specifically eligibility and enrollment data, you can calculate acute inpatient visits per 1,000 members per year (PKPY). This metric normalizes the visit metric with the total number of eligible members each month.

Total Number of Acute IP Visits PKPY
with acute_inpatient as (
select 
  data_source
, date_part(year, encounter_end_date) || lpad(date_part(month, encounter_end_date),2,0) as year_month
, count(1) as acute_inpatient_visits
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1,2
)
, member_months as (
select
  data_source
, year_month
, count(1) as member_months
from financial_pmpm.member_months
group by 1,2
)
select
  a.data_source
, a.year_month
, b.member_months
, acute_inpatient_visits
, cast(acute_inpatient_visits / member_months *12000 as numeric(38,2)) as aip_visits_pkpy
from acute_inpatient a
inner join member_months b
  on a.year_month = b.year_month
  and a.data_source = b.data_source
order by 1,2

Acute Inpatient Days PKPY​

Besides looking at the total number of visits normalized for eligibility, it's common to analyze the number of acute inpatient days per 1,000 members per year (PKPY).

Trending Visits, Length of Stay, and Total Cost
with acute_inpatient as (
select 
  data_source
, date_part(year, encounter_end_date) || lpad(date_part(month, encounter_end_date),2,0) as year_month
, sum(length_of_stay) as sum_length_of_stay
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1,2
)
, member_months as (
select
  data_source
, year_month
, count(1) as member_months
from financial_pmpm.member_months
group by 1,2
)
select
  a.data_source
, a.year_month
, b.member_months
, cast(sum_length_of_stay / member_months *12000 as numeric(38,2)) as aip_days
from acute_inpatient a
inner join member_months b
  on a.year_month = b.year_month
  and a.data_source = b.data_source
order by 1,2

If you have claims data, you can calculate the paid and allowed amounts spent on acute inpatient visits. Because the encounter grouper in Claims Preprocessing groups multiple claims into distinct visits, this allows you to analyze the paid and allowed amounts per visit, as opposed to per claim.

Total Paid and Allowed Amounts
select
  sum(paid_amount) as paid_amount
, sum(allowed_amount) as allowed_amount
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
Total Paid and Allowed Amounts by Month
select
  date_part(year, encounter_end_date) || lpad(date_part(month, encounter_end_date),2,0) as year_month
, sum(paid_amount) as paid_amount
, sum(allowed_amount) as allowed_amount
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1
order by 1

Length of Stay​

Length of stay is computed as the difference between discharge date and admission date and typically reported as an average.

Average Length of Stay by Month
select 
  date_part(year, encounter_end_date) || lpad(date_part(month, encounter_end_date),2,0) as year_month
, avg(length_of_stay) as alos
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
group by 1
order by 1

Mortality​

Mortality is computed by counting the number of discharges with a discharge disposition = 20 (the numerator) and dividing this number by the total number of acute inpatient visits (the denominator). It's important to exclude patients that have not been discharged or for which a discharge disposition is not available.

Mortality Rate by Month
with mortality_flag as (
select
  data_source
, date_part(year, encounter_end_date) || lpad(date_part(month, encounter_end_date),2,0) as year_month
, case
    when discharge_disposition_code = 20 then 1
    else 0
  end mortality_flag
from core.encounter
where encounter_type = 'acute inpatient'
  and discharge_disposition_code is not null
  and encounter_end_date is not null
)

select
  data_source
, year_month
, count(1) as acute_inpatient_visits
, sum(mortality_flag) as mortality_count
, sum(mortality_flag) / count(1) as mortality_rate
from mortality_flag
group by 1,2
order by 1,2

Readmissions​

The 30-day readmission rate is calculated by following CMS's readmission methodology which is computed via the Readmission data mart.

30-day Readmission Rate by Month
with readmit as 
(
select
to_char(discharge_date, 'YYYYMM') as year_month
, sum(case when index_admission_flag = 1 then 1 else 0 end) as index_admissions
, sum(case when index_admission_flag = 1 and unplanned_readmit_30_flag = 1 then 1 else 0 end) as readmissions
from readmissions.readmission_summary
group by to_char(discharge_date, 'YYYYMM')
)

select 
year_month
,index_admissions
,readmissions
,case when index_admissions = 0 then 0 else readmissions / index_admissions end as readmission_rate
from readmit
order by year_month
30-day Readmission Rate by MS-DRG
with readmit as 
(
select
rs.ms_drg_code
,drg.ms_drg_description
, sum(case when index_admission_flag = 1 then 1 else 0 end) as index_admissions
, sum(case when index_admission_flag = 1 and unplanned_readmit_30_flag = 1 then 1 else 0 end) as readmissions
from readmissions.readmission_summary rs
left join terminology.ms_drg drg on rs.ms_drg_code = drg.ms_drg_code
group by 
rs.ms_drg_code
,drg.ms_drg_description
)

select 
ms_drg_code
,ms_drg_description
,index_admissions
,readmissions
,case when readmissions = 0 then 0 else readmissions / index_admissions end as readmission_rate
from readmit
order by index_admissions desc

Readmissions Data Quality​

CMS's readmission methodology excludes certain encounters from the calculation if they are missing certain fields. Here we break these down to show the different reasons encounters were excluded.

Disqualified Encounters

Let's find how many encounters were disqualified.

select count(*) encounter_count
from readmissions.encounter_augmented
where disqualified_encounter_flag = 1
Disqualification Reason

We can see the reason(s) why an encounter was disqualified by unpivoting the disqualification reason column.


with disqualified_unpivot as (
    select encounter_id
    , disqualified_reason
    , flagvalue
    from readmissions.encounter_augmented
    unpivot(
        flagvalue for disqualified_reason in (
            invalid_discharge_disposition_code_flag
            , invalid_ms_drg_flag
            , invalid_primary_diagnosis_code_flag
            , missing_admit_date_flag
            , missing_discharge_date_flag
            , admit_after_discharge_flag
            , missing_discharge_disposition_code_flag
            , missing_ms_drg_flag
            , missing_primary_diagnosis_flag
            , no_diagnosis_ccs_flag
            , overlaps_with_another_encounter_flag
        )
    ) as unpvt
)


select encounter_id
, disqualified_reason
, row_number () over (partition by encounter_id order by disqualified_reason) as disqualification_number
from disqualified_unpivot
where flagvalue = 1

Discharge Location​

Based on the discharge disposition field, it is often helpful to group these into the most common locations for analysis.

Discharge Location
select case when discharge_disposition_code = '01' then 'Home'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '03' then 'SNF'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '06' then 'Home Health'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '62' then 'Inpatient Rehab'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '20' then 'Expired'
            else 'Other'
            end as discharge_location
        ,count(*) as encounters
        ,cast(sum(paid_amount) as decimal(18,2)) as total_paid_amount
        ,cast(sum(paid_amount)/count(*) as decimal(18,2)) as paid_per_encounter
from core.encounter
group by 
case when discharge_disposition_code = '01' then 'Home'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '03' then 'SNF'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '06' then 'Home Health'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '62' then 'Inpatient Rehab'
            when discharge_disposition_code = '20' then 'Expired'
            else 'Other'
            end 
order by count(*) desc