5.1% of Sask. patients considered 'high users' of hospital beds

About one in 20 patients hospitalized in Saskatchewan are considered frequent users of hospital beds, a new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information says.

The CIHI report looked at patients in 2014 and 2015 who were discharged but returned three or more times within the year and spent more than 30 days in care.

In Saskatchewan, 3,802 patients out of 76,711 fit that category. That's about 5.1 per cent, giving Saskatchewan the second-highest "high user" rate of the provinces, with P.E.I having the highest rate.

Saskatchewan's high user rate can be attributed to a couple of factors, according to Chantal Couris, manager in charge of indicators research and development with CIHI.

She said the unique challenges in Saskatchewan, like the high percentage of the population that doesn't have access to a regular doctor (79.9 per cent), plays a significant role in the number of hospital visits.

"In some jurisdictions one of the strategies would be to have more integrated care in the community and have complex patients taken care of outside the hospital because it's also less expensive for the system and less disruptive for the patients," Couris said. "If the hospital is your only resource then, yes you will always go there for care."

There was some variation among Saskatchewan health districts. The highest rate of frequent users was in the Sunrise Health Region (5.9 per cent), while the lower rate was in Five Hills (four per cent).

Across Canada, 66 per cent of the high users were 65 years old and older.

Couris said as baby boomers age, pressure on the healthcare system will only grow.

"The pressures may grow if we don't find the appropriate strategy to have those patients taken care of differently," she said. "The high users, they consume a lot of resources, so it would be beneficial for the system but also for the patient, because it's very disruptive for the patient to be in hospital for so long."

The top reasons for repeat hospitalization were heart failure, obstructive pulmonary disease and palliative care, a trend CIHI said holds across the country.

For the age group 18 to 64, the largest group of high users was patients seeking treatment for mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, CIHI says.