Over the last few decades, there has been significant growth in the measurement and reporting of health care quality outcomes. As health care evolves, it is important to continue to monitor and report on the quality of care delivered to patients in California and across the US. This is part of a series of measures CHCF publishes on the quality of care in our state. Topics range from maternal to end-of-life care, and include measures on behavioral health, chronic conditions, and providers.

This set of quality measures focuses on providers, including ambulatory surgery centers, emergency departments, inpatient hospitals, nursing homes, home health care, and hospice.

Patients with mental health conditions spent much more time in California’s emergency departments than other patients.

Patients with mental health conditions visiting California emergency departments (EDs) in 2021 spent four and a half hours in the ED before being sent home, compared to less than three hours for other patients. In both cases, California patients spent more time in the ED than patients nationwide.

Black and multiracial Californians had higher 30-day hospital readmission rates than Californians of other races/ethnicities.

In 2020, California’s rate of unplanned hospital readmissions within 30 days exceeded the Let’s Get Healthy California target of 11.9%. Black Californians (18.0%) and multiracial Californians (17.2%) had higher readmission rates than Californians of other races/ethnicities.

About one in three Californian deaths occurred in the hospital in 2021.

While a recent survey of Californians¹ found that only 15% would prefer to die in the hospital, 35% of Californian deaths occurred in the hospital in 2021. Deaths in the hospital varied by race/ethnicity, with at least four in 10 Asian, Latino/x, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Californians dying in the hospital.

1. Help Wanted: Californians’ Views and Experiences of Serious Illness and End-of-Life Care, California Health Care Foundation, 2019.