Clinical profiles of hospital discharge rates in local communities.

Using comprehensive 1980 data for hospitalization of the 9 million citizens of Michigan's lower peninsula, the authors have previously demonstrated that the discharge rates of local communities differ by a range of 2 to 1. This article seeks to identify differences in the clinical profile of high-use compared to low-use communities. Population-based rates and percentages of total discharges were studied for major clinical activity groups, such as cardiovascular disease, frequent diagnoses, rarely occurring diagnoses, short- and long-stay diagnoses, certain surgical procedures, and major organ groups of the diagnostic classification system. Although high-use communities tend to admit proportionately fewer surgical cases and proportionately more nonsurgical cases, few other such patterns could be demonstrated.