Primary care

Primary Care – Avoidable Hospital Admissions (AA) is a subgroup of indicators within the HCQO database and provides data on hospital admissions for chronic admissions that could be avoided though better management in primary care. Conditions like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF) and diabetes can largely be treated in primary care. Admission rates for these conditions may therefore signal quality issues in primary care. Indicators are reported as age- and sex-standardised rates.

For further information, please consult:

• The HCQO Definitions document provides indicator definitions and calculation methodologies of HCQO indicators


• The Sources and Methods surveys on Primary Care (AA) and Hospital Data provide detailed country-specific information


• The OECD’s Health System Performance Assessment (HSPA) Framework outlines how HCQO indicators relate to the OECD’s HSPA domains of Access, Quality and People’s needs and preferences