TY - JOUR
AU1 - Heinzerling, Keith
AU2 - Etzioni, David
AU3 - Hurley, Brian
AU4 - Holtom, Paul
AU5 - Bluthenthal, Ricky
AU6 - Asch, Steven
AB - Drug related-soft tissue infections (DR-STIs) are a significant source of hospital utilization in inner-city urban areas where injection drug use is common but the magnitude of hospital utilization for DR-STIs outside of inner-city urban areas is not known. We described the magnitude and characteristics of hospital utilization for DR-STIs in urban versus rural counties in California. All discharges from all nonfederal hospitals in California in 2000 with ICD-9 codes for a soft tissue infection and for drug dependence/abuse were abstracted from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development discharge database. There were 4,152 DR-STI discharges in 2000 from hospitals in 49 of California's 58 counties. Residents of 12 large metropolitan counties accounted for 3,598 discharges (87% of total). The majority of DR-STI discharges were from urban safety net hospitals with county indigent programs and Medicaid as the expected payment source and opiate related discharge diagnoses. Hospital utilization for DR-STIs in California is highest in large urban metropolitan counties, although DR-STI discharges are widespread. Increased access to harm reduction services and drug treatment may reduce government health care expenditures by preventing unnecessary hospital utilization for DR-STIs.
TI - Hospital Utilization for Injection Drug Use-Related Soft Tissue Infections in Urban versus Rural Counties in California
JF - Journal of Urban Health
DO - 10.1007/s11524-005-9021-6
DA - 2006-03-24
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/hospital-utilization-for-injection-drug-use-related-soft-tissue-9TCBod74kn
SP - 176
EP - 181
VL - 83
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -