US Counties With the Lowest Preventable Hospital Stays

3,061 US counties ranked by preventable hospital stays, from lowest to highest. First are Beaverhead County, MT (133), San Miguel County, CO (221) and Bristol Bay Borough, AK (334). The middle one of the 3,061 has 2,744.

What this measures

Hospital stays per 100,000 people on Medicare for illnesses that good care from a regular doctor should have prevented. It measures access to care, as seen through hospital stays. Source: County Health Rankings.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

The 100 lowest counties

Every state, lowest first

Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.

More on preventable hospital stays

• US Counties With the Highest Preventable Hospital Stays
• Preventable hospital stays by US county: map by year and what it goes with

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.