Potentially Preventable Emergency Visit Rates by Zip Code Since 2011

Potentially Preventable Visit (PPV) rates for emergency department discharges in New York State, calculated by 3M Health Information Systems software. Data includes observed, expected, and risk-adjusted rates per 100 people, aggregated by patient zip code and discharge year beginning in 2011. The dataset is published by health.data.ny.gov.

Use Cases

• Analyze geographic disparities in healthcare access by comparing Observed Rate Per 100 People across different Patient Zipcode values.
• Assess the impact of care coordination programs over time by tracking Risk Adjusted Rate Per 100 People across Discharge Year.
• Identify zip codes with higher-than-expected emergency visits by calculating the Difference in Rates between observed and expected values.
• Benchmark hospital or regional performance against statewide expected rates using the Expected Rate Per 100 People column.

Strengths

• Provides multiple calculated metrics per record: Observed, Expected, and Risk-Adjusted Rate Per 100 People.
• Includes temporal coverage beginning in 2011, enabling longitudinal analysis.
• Data is aggregated at the patient zip code level, allowing for geographic analysis.

Limitations

• Specific row count and sample size are unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Data is aggregated, preventing analysis at the individual patient or visit level.
• Geographic coverage is limited to New York State, which may not be generalizable.

Provenance

Source

health.data.ny.gov, derived from the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS).

Collection Method

Calculated from de-identified hospital discharge data using 3M Health Information Systems software.

Time Range

Beginning 2011.

Freshness

Updated as of February 2026.

Geography

New York State, aggregated by patient zip code.