Avoidable hospitalization of children from ambulatory care sensitive conditions in Barbados: a measure of the access and uptake of primary health care

Background and Objective: Hospitalization from avoidable causes refers to hospitalizations for an Ambulatory Care Sensitive (ACS) condition and is considered to be a measure of access to appropriate primary health care. While not all admissions for these conditions are avoidable, timely ambulatory care could temper the disease course and thus prevent progression to where hospitalization is medically indicated. A disproportionately high rate of ACS conditions may reflect problems in access to timely primary care. In this study we determine the proportion of all medical admissions in children that were from ACS Conditions (ASSC's) and therefore avoidable. We also study the trend in the proportion of avoidable hospitalizations.