Massachusetts Acute Care Hospital Inpatient Discharge Reporting

Massachusetts Acute Care Hospital Inpatient Quarterly Update

(Published February 27, 2025)

The acute care hospital inpatient department data dashboard contains data through September 2024. The primary purpose of this series is to provide timely patterns and trends on key inpatient utilization measures. The dashboard and databook are updated at each release with more complete information as it becomes available. The data in the quarterly updates is preliminary. 

In the February 2025 quarterly update (July-September 2024), data on statewide visits and average length of stay (ALOS) by hospital system have been added under the statewide utilization section.

This quarterly update series complements CHIA’s Massachusetts Acute Care Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data (FFY 2016-2021) report released in December 2022.

Massachusetts Acute Care Hospital Quarterly Update
(Data through September 2024)

 Updated on February 27, 2025

Massachusetts Acute Care Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data (FFY 2016-2021) Report
(December 2022)

CHIA has published the latest report in its series providing analyses and trends sourced from the Massachusetts Acute Hospital Case Mix Database. The Massachusetts Acute Care Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data (FFY 2016-2021) report resents key measures of inpatient utilization overall and by hospital, patient, and discharge characteristics from FFY 2016 to FFY 2021.

This report establishes an important baseline of inpatient utilization that can be used for public health initiatives, analyses of preventable hospitalizations and readmissions, and comparative cost and outcomes research. To better understand the vital role of inpatient services in the continuum of health care services in the Commonwealth, CHIA has analyzed inpatient stays in Massachusetts acute care hospitals over a six-year period, from Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2016 to FFY 2021.

Under state law, CHIA maintains a database of visit-level encounters with acute care hospitals going back more than 20 years. Collectively known as Case Mix, the databases capture each inpatient admission, emergency department visit, and outpatient observation stay at acute care hospitals in Massachusetts. Case Mix captures the medical reason for the visit, procedures and services provided, charges incurred, duration of the visit,  and patient demographics. 

This publication is part of a reporting series providing analyses on patterns and trends of acute care hospital services from CHIA’s Case Mix database. In addition to this report, CHIA has published parallel reports for emergency department encounters and outpatient observation stays.

Key Findings:

• From 2016 to 2019, overall inpatient discharge volume remained relatively stable, around 800,000 inpatient discharges. Inpatient discharges declined 7.5% to 741,074 in 2020, and remained at a similar level in 2021.

• Average length of stay and total patient days of care for hospitalizations with intensive care use increased by 19.7% and 9.9%, respectively, from 2016 to 2021.

• The prevalence of behavioral health conditions among inpatient discharges increased steadily over the 6-year period from 38.0% in 2016 to 42.5% in 2021.