As you might imagine, unnecessary hospitalizations can be costly. And when hundreds of patients have to go to the hospital for reasons that would have been avoided with proper preventative care, the cost is greatly multiplied.

A new study recently came out from Washington’s Office of Financial Management, and looked at this issue in our state. It found that millions of dollars are being wasted in hospitalizations that should have been avoided – and the worst place for such events is in and around the Tacoma area.

While the statewide average for preventable hospital stays per 100,000 people was 645, the legislative district encompassing South Tacoma, Lakewood and Spanaway was more than double that, with 1,299 such hospitalizations. A close second was north Tacoma, with 1,041 hospitalizations per 100,000 people.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the 46th legislative District (mostly Seattle) and the 41st Legislative District (Bellevue and Mercer Island) both had hospitalization rates better than state average in all 11 conditions the study examined.

As noted above, the cost of these preventable hospitalizations is huge – around $487,000,000 per year. Unfortunately, funding for preventative care through community health programs was not included in this year’s state budget. Without greater spending to address the underlying causes of preventative illnesses, it’s hard to make a reasonable claim that the situation will get any better.