Hospital utilization rates provide insight into which pockets of the community have increased needs for health services. These trends can help identify areas that may require in-depth investigation regarding cost, quality, access or provider output. (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention).
The hospital utilization indicator can be used to estimate the use of acute care hospitals in Oklahoma City-County during 2013-2015. This indicator presents the number of hospital discharges per 1,000 population. A discharge is defined as the completion of any continuous period of stay of one night or more in a hospital as an inpatient (National Health Interview Survey definition).