Hospitalization for urinary tract infections and the quality of preventive health care received by people with spina bifida.

BACKGROUND: The preventive health care needs of people with disabilities often go unmet, resulting in medical complications that may require hospitalization. Such complications could be due, in part, to difficulty accessing care or the quality of ambulatory care services received.

OBJECTIVE: To use hospitalizations for urinary tract infections (UTIs) as a marker of the potential quality of ambulatory care services received by people affected by spina bifida.

METHODS: MarketScan inpatient and outpatient medical claims data for 2000 through 2003 were used to identify hospitalizations for UTI, which is an ambulatory care sensitive condition, for people affected by spina bifida and to calculate inpatient discharge rates, average lengths of stay, and average medical care expenditures for such hospitalizations.

RESULTS: People affected by spina bifida averaged 0.5 hospitalizations per year, and there were 22.8 inpatient admissions with UTI per 1000 persons with spina bifida during the period 2000-2003, in comparison to an average of 0.44 admission with UTI per 1000 persons for those without spina bifida. If the number of UTI hospitalizations among people affected by spina bifida were reduced by 50%, expenditures could be reduced by $4.4 million per 1000 patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Consensus on the evaluation and management of bacteriuria could enhance clinical care and reduce the disparity in UTI discharge rates among people affected by spina bifida compared to those without spina bifida. National evidence-based guidelines are needed.