Author(s)

Ronald Lagoe^*, Shelly Littau

Hospital Executive Council, Syracuse, USA.

This study evaluated developments in adult medicine and adult surgery inpatient discharges of the Syracuse, New York metropolitan area during a five-year period. The study demonstrated that adult medicine discharges declined by 19.1 percent and adult surgery discharges declined by 25.1 percent between January-April 2019 and 2023. The study also indicated that discharges for both services increased slightly, 2.8 - 6.2 percent, between January-April 2022 and 2023. The study data suggested that some of the reduction in adult medicine discharges resulted from less use of health care services related to the coronavirus epidemic. It also demonstrated that reduced use of adult surgery services was associated with greater utilization of ambulatory surgery and other outpatient services in the community. The results of the study suggested that hospitals in the United States may experience less utilization of inpatient services in the future.

Hospitals, Hospital Discharges, Hospital Utilization

Lagoe, R. and Littau, S. (2023) Changes in Hospital Utilization at the Community Level. Case Reports in Clinical Medicine, 12, 285-291. doi: 10.4236/crcm.2023.128040.