THE IMPACT OF THE ROCHESTER NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH CENTER ON HOSPITALIZATION OF CHILDREN, 1968 TO 1970

Despite extensive outreach, physician availability, and the team approach, the health center continued to have a large number of child admissions who reached the hospital without referral (the "leakers").

Abstract

The admission patterns of children to area hospitals was studied. The study design allowed for comparisons between actual users of the health center, nonusers who lived in the target area and a comparison group. During the second year of operation, the admission rate of health center users was only 33 versus 67 per thousand for nonusers and 39 per thousand for the comparison group. Comparing the first two years, hospital days per thousand among users dropped by approximately half. Due to higher admission rates and longer average stays, nonusers had a rate of 2.5 times that of the users for hospital days per thousand. The rate for the comparison group remained constant. Users had fewer admissions for respiratory infectious diseases and more admissions for surgical restorative procedures. These trends were not present for the nonusers or for the comparison group. Despite extensive outreach, physician availability, and the team approach, the health center continued to have a large number of child admissions who reached the hospital without referral (the "leakers").