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URSA-PHF-039: Percent of Patients with High ED-Only Utilization

  • Published on Aug 19, 2026
  • 9 minute(s) read
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Measure Description

Among living active members, the percent with 4 or more emergency department visits that did not result in an inpatient admission in the last 12 months.

Metadata

  • Measure Identifier: URSA-PHF-039
  • Measure Type: Rate Measure
  • Temporal Structure: Entity
  • Component Class: Normal-Form
  • Case Field: Patient ID
  • Observation Fields: Patient ID, Snapshot Date [, snapshot_date]
  • Target Direction: Down

Denominator Description

All living patients with active membership

Numerator Description

Patients with four or more emergency department visits in the last 365 days. Excludes emergency department visits resulting in admit to inpatient admission. It does include those that are admitted to observation stays (without inpatient admit) or transferred.

Published Fields

  • Data Model Keys

    • Patient ID -- The internal database identifier (used, e.g., for joins and primary keys) for the patient. This value is typically mastered, i.e., all records for the same patient, regardless of the source data system from which that record originated, should have the same Patient ID value. (Note that while the mastered Patient ID value might resemble a local identifier used in one of the upstream data sources, this does not indicate any special priority of that source system in determining the characteristics of the patient.) (See also [URSA-CORE] Patient)
    • Primary Payor ID -- The internal database identifier (used, e.g., for joins and primary keys) for the Primary Payor. (See also [URSA-CORE] Primary Payor)
    • Primary Plan ID -- The identifier for the health insurance plan product that is the first party responsible for payment.
    • Primary Plan Attributee Provider ID

  • Patient Fields

    • Patient Age Integer -- Patient age, expressed as an integer, as of a reference date or interval.
    • Patient Age Category Tier 1 -- Non-overlapping ranges of the patient age in years into three categories; [01] Pediatrics < 19, [02] Adults 19 - 64, and [03] Older Adults >= 65. Coarser grain to the Patient Age Category Tier 2. (See also [URSA-CORE] Patient Age Category Tier 2)
    • Patient Age Category Tier 2 -- Non-overlapping ranges of the patient age in years representing finer grain categories than the Patient Age Category Tier 1. This field incorporates findings from publications on defining meaningful age groups in the context of disease. These ranges closely, but not exactly, align with standard age ranges such as those defined by the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). See results of K-Means simple clustering method at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3825015/ (See also [URSA-CORE] Patient Age Category Tier 1)
    • Patient Sex Category
    • Count Hospital Inpatient Admissions in Last 12 Months
    • Count ED Visits Without Inpatient Admissions in Last 12 Months
    • Count Primary Care Visits in Last 36 Months
    • Count Specialty Care Office Visits in Last 36 Months

  • Date Fields

    • Segment Start Date -- The start date of the reporting segment. (See also [URSA-CORE] Reporting Segment)
    • Segment End Date -- The end date of the reporting segment. (See also [URSA-CORE] Reporting Segment)
    • Snapshot Date -- The date, evaluated at 00:00:00 AM, giving the moment the state of the world will be set to for the purposes of an analysis. The snapshot date does not represent the freshness of the data, or the date in real time at which an analysis was executed.

  • Location Fields

    • Patient State Abbreviation
    • Patient ZIP Code 5-Digit
    • UW HIP Area Deprivation Index National Percentile -- A value between 1 and 100 representing the composite measure of socioeconomic deprivation from University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health. Scores are for Census Block Group geographic level, which generally contains between 600 and 3,000 people. Higher scores indicate more deprivation, so a score of 1 indicates the least deprivation while a score of 100 indicates the most deprivation. Percentiles are constructed by ranking the ADI from low to high for the nation and grouping the block groups into bins corresponding to each 1% range of the ADI. The 2019 ADI was constructed using the 2015-2019 5-year estimates from the US Census' American Community Survey and includes 17 component measures that span the domains of income, education, employment, and housing quality. It may be linked with the 9-digit ZIP code crosswalk, which was built to correspond directly to Census block groups. The 2019 ADI was released on 07/14/2021 and is the most recent version as of 02/02/22.
    • UW HIP ADI Quintile Category -- The UW HIP Area Deprivation Index National Percentile grouped into 5 levels, each spanning 20 percentile points (ADI 1 is percentile scores from 1 to 20 while ADI 5 is scores from 81 to 100). Higher scores indicate more deprivation, so ADI 1 is the least deprived while ADI 5 is the most deprived. Quintiles are frequently used in health research. They give larger sample sizes per group and are easier to plot and interpret. Quintiles also carry less information and group more dissimilar patients. Quintiles are good for descriptive analyses while the original percentile measure is preferable for predictive modeling. (See also [URSA-CORE] UW HIP Area Deprivation Index National Percentile)
    • UW HIP ADI Decile Category
    • CDC SVI Overall Quintile Category -- The CDC SVI Overall National Percentile grouped into 5 levels, each spanning 20 percentile points (the first quintile is percentile scores from 1 to 20 while the fifth is scores from 81 to 100). Higher scores indicate more vulnerability, so the first quintile is the least vulnerable while the fifth is the most vulnerable. Quintiles are frequently used in health research. They give larger sample sizes per group and are easier to plot and interpret. Quintiles also carry less information and group more dissimilar patients. Quintiles are good for descriptive analyses while the original percentile measure is preferable for predictive modeling.

  • Insurance Fields

    • Primary Payor Description

  • Diagnosis Fields

    • CCW Count Category
    • Count CCW Conditions -- The total of both Chronic Conditions and Potentially Disabling Events included in the CMS Chronic Condition Warehouse (CCW) library. (See also [URSA-CORE] CCW Comorbidity Category, [URSA-CORE] Count Potentially Disabling Events, [URSA-CORE] CMS Chronic Condition Warehouse (CCW), [URSA-CORE] Count Chronic Conditions)
    • Is CCW Acute Myocardial Infarction -- At least 1 inpatient claim with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set as the first or second diagnosis position in the prior 1 year.
    • Is CCW Alzheimers Disease and Related Disorders or Senile Dementia -- At least 1 inpatient, SNF, HHA, HOP, or Carrier claim with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 3 years.
    • Is CCW Atrial Fibrillation -- At least 1 inpatient OR 2 HOP or Carrier claims with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set as the first or second diagnosis position in the prior 1 year.
    • Is CCW CKD -- Indicates that the patient meets the CMS Chronic Condition Warehouse criteria for chronic kidney disease; i.e., 2 or more qualifying outpatient or professional ICD codes in the prior 2 years, or 1 or more non-outpatient institutional claim ICD codes in the prior 2 years.
    • Is CCW COPD and Bronchiectasis -- At least 1 inpatient, SNF, HHA OR 2 HOP or Carrier claims with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 1 year.
    • Is CCW Depression -- At least 1 inpatient, SNF, HHA, HOP, or Carrier claim with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 1 year.
    • Is CCW Diabetes -- At least 1 inpatient, SNF, HHA OR 2 HOP or Carrier claims with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 2 years.
    • Is CCW Heart Failure -- At least 1 inpatient, HOP, or Carrier claim with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 2 years.
    • Is CCW Hypertension -- At least 1 inpatient, SNF, HHA OR 2 HOP or Carrier claims with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 1 year.
    • Is CCW Ischemic Heart Disease -- At least 1 inpatient, SNF, HHA, HOP, or Carrier claim with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 2 years.
    • Is CCW PVD -- At least 1 inpatient OR 2 non-inpatient claims with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 2 years.
    • Is CCW Rheumatoid Arthritis or Osteoarthritis -- At least 2 inpatient, SNF, HHA, HOP, or Carrier claims with one or more of the DX codes from the corresponding CCW value set in the prior 2 years.
    • CCW Systems Category
    • Count CCW Systems -- The count of distinct systems of the body with one or more active CCW Condition. CCW Systems are as a parent category to the individual CCW Conditions grouping them based primarily on the human body system they impact such as; Behavioral Health, Cancers, Cardiovascular, Cerebrovascular, Endocrine, Genitourinary, Musculoskeletal, and Pulmonary. (See also [URSA-CORE] CMS Chronic Condition Warehouse (CCW))
    • Is CCW System Behavioral Health -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; ADHD, Conduct Disorders, and Hyperkinetic Syndrome, Anxiety Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Depressive Disorders, Personality Disorders, PTSD, Schizophrenia, or Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders.
    • Is CCW System Cardiovascular -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), Atrial Fibrillation, Heart Failure, Hypertension, Ischemic Heart Disease, or Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD).
    • Is CCW System Congenital -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Cerebral Palsy, Cystic Fibrosis and Other Metabolic Disorder, Intellectual Disability, Learning Disability, Muscular Dystrophy, or Other Developmental Delays.
    • Is CCW System Endocrine/Metabolic -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Diabetes, Acquired Hypothyroidism, Hyperlipidemia, or Obesity.
    • Is CCW System Genitourinary -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia or Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).
    • Is CCW System Hematologic -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Anemia.
    • Is CCW System Musculoskeletal -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Hip or Pelvic Fracture, Rheumatoid Arthritis or Osteoarthritis, or Osteoporosis.
    • Is CCW System Neurological -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders or Senile Dementia, Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack, Epilepsy, Migraine and Chronic Headache, Mobility Impairment, Multiple Sclerosis, or Deafness and Hearing Impairment.
    • Is CCW System Oncologic -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Breast Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Endometrial Cancer, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer, or Leukemia.
    • Is CCW System Ophthalmologic -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Cataract, Glaucoma, or Blindness and Visual Impairment.
    • Is CCW System Pulmonary -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Asthma, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Bronchiectasis.
    • Is CCW System Other -- Indicates the patient has one or more of the following CCW conditions; Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain and Fatigue, Pressure or Chronic Ulcer.

  • Measure Fields

    • Denominator