Hospital admission constitutes the standard of care for significant acute illness and have shown a marked and consistent worldwide increase over the last years. Nevertheless, not all admissions are mandatory and 16–38% of patients could be safely managed on an ambulatory basis [1,2]. Avoidable admissions have been studied chiefly because of their marked cost effects. However, another good reason to avoid hospitalization whenever possible is the wide spectrum of harm that hospitalization carries for the patient (Fig. 1).
