PQI Web Site

The NY State Health Department just released the Prevention Quality Indicator (PQI), a web-based tool to assess regional hospitalization rates for conditions considered preventable from a public health perspective:

• Capital News 9: Health officials unveil new web tool for New Yorkers
• Press Release: State Health Dept. Unveils Web-Based Tool to Help Plan High-Performing Health Care System
• The PQI Tool: Prevention Quality Indicators in New York State

When you analyze the 12144 zip code, you can compare our rate of adult "avoidable hospitalizations" (over the 2 year period 2005-6) with the number that would be expected based on statewide statistics for a variety of conditions.

So how does Rensselaer stack up? Our best score was for diabetes care, where our hospitalizations were 52% of expected (22 Rensselaer residents were hospitalized for diabetes, while the number expected would have been 42.) The hospitalization rate for circulatory complications (cardiovascular disease) was 89% (73 hospitalized when 82 would have been expected).

Rensselaer's worst hospitalization rate was for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), at 166% of expected (which is adjusted for age of population). There were 44 hospitalizations, versus the 27 that would be expected. This probably indicates a need for more attention on reducing smoking. (Looking just at overall respiratory conditions is deceptive, since we scored better than average in asthma, which masks the bad score for COPD.)