August 2021 Utilization Report

Highlights

Comparisons of utilization metrics to the pre-COVID-19 baseline continue to show acute care admissions recovery between 6-8% below pre-COVID-19 trends (Fig. 1). Observation utilization returned to pre-COVID baseline levels with mean and median difference from pre-COVID baseline of 0% over the past six months (Fig. 1). In addition to the upward trend in ED utilization in Fig. 1, for the 15-month period examined for ED visits (Table 15), all but three hospitals saw their highest ED volumes this month while two of the three saw their highest ED volumes in the prior month. There was a noticeable increase of neonatal admissions at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and Children’s National Hospital (Table 13) which anecdotal evidence suggests may be due to an increased number of deliveries and a higher number of multiple deliveries.