Research/Injury-Related Hospital Stays in Massachusetts
Injury-Related Hospital Stays in Massachusetts
Each year the state health department counts the hospital stays that Massachusetts residents spend in a Massachusetts acute care hospital because of an injury. This page sets out five years of those counts: how many stays there were, what caused the injuries, and how the causes split between accidents, self-harm and assault.
Key findings
- Massachusetts residents had 46,523 injury-related stays in the state’s acute care hospitals in federal fiscal year 2023, or 661.8 for every 100,000 residents. The count was 46,772 in fiscal year 2019 and dropped to 43,897 in 2020, the year the pandemic began.
- Falls caused 26,543 of the 2023 stays, 57.1% of the total, the most of the five years. Their share stayed between 55.7% and 58.4% each year.
- Poisoning and overdose were the second cause, with 5,610 stays in 2023, down from 6,535 in 2019. Most of those were drug poisonings.
- Crashes on public roads caused 3,620 stays in 2023, the most of the five years, against 3,256 in 2019. Vehicle occupants accounted for 2,259 of them and motorcyclists for 622.
- Accidents, which the health department calls unintentional injuries, made up 87.6% of stays in 2023. Self-inflicted injuries accounted for 2,649 stays and assaults for 1,037.
- The reports give no breakdown by age or sex. They count hospital stays, not people, and leave out stays that ended in death. The health department has published nothing later than fiscal year 2023.
Terms used on this page
- Hospital stay: an admission to a Massachusetts acute care hospital or an observation stay there. The health department combines the two.
- Federal fiscal year (FFY): October 1 to September 30. FFY 2023 ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
- Mechanism: how the injury happened, such as a fall, a poisoning or a crash.
- Intent: whether the injury was unintentional (an accident), self-inflicted, an assault, undetermined, or caused by police action or war.
- Motor vehicle traffic: a crash on a public road. Crashes in driveways, parking lots and on private roads are counted separately as nontraffic.
- Rate per 100,000: stays divided by the state’s population, times 100,000. The 2019 report uses the 2019 population estimate of 6,964,383; the 2020 to 2023 reports all use the 2020 population of 7,029,917.
- Suppressed count: a count of 1 to 10 that the state withholds to protect privacy, shown as “fewer than 11”. Some counts are given only as a range for the same reason.
Where the counts come from
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health publishes a two-page summary of injury-related hospital stays each year, built from hospital discharge records held by the Center for Health Information and Analysis. This page uses the summaries for federal fiscal years 2019 to 2023, read from the spreadsheet version of each report and checked against the PDF.
A script took every figure from the spreadsheets. It checked that each year’s counts by intent add up to its total, and that every rate equals the count divided by the population the report names. Where the state printed a range or withheld a count, the page shows it as printed.
Left out, and why:
- Emergency department visits. The health department publishes those in separate reports.
- Injury deaths. Stays that ended in death are excluded from these reports, and deaths are counted in other reports.
- The separate children’s reports, which cover ages 0 to 17 only.
- Any figure by age, sex, county or hospital. The all-ages reports do not give one.
- Fiscal years 2015 to 2018. The 2018 report also leaves out transfers to another hospital, so it counts stays differently; the 2016 and 2017 reports were posted only as PDFs; and fiscal year 2015 straddles the October 2015 change in diagnosis codes, after which the health department says counts should not be compared with earlier data.
- A preliminary year. The health department publishes these counts once a year, and fiscal year 2023 is the latest. The hospital records behind them go further: the Center for Health Information and Analysis has posted documentation for its fiscal year 2025 hospital data, but it releases that data as extracts that must be applied for, not as published counts.
Data windows
- Federal fiscal years 2019 to 2023: October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2023.
- Reports released July 2021 (FFY 2019), April 2022 (FFY 2020), March 2023 (FFY 2021), May 2024 (FFY 2022) and January 2025 (FFY 2023).
- Massachusetts residents treated in Massachusetts acute care hospitals.
- The health department has published nothing later than fiscal year 2023, so there is no preliminary figure on this page.
- Data retrieved October 26, 2026.
Why 2023 is the newest year
These counts reach the public in steps. The records of hospital stays are held by the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA). CHIA does not publish injury counts from them; it releases the records as extracts to people who apply for them. The health department builds its two-page summary from those records, and that summary is the only published source of the counts on this page.
Each summary has come out long after the year it covers: between 16 and 22 months after the fiscal year ended.
| Fiscal year | Year ended | Report released | Months after the year ended |
|---|---|---|---|
| FFY 2019 | September 30, 2019 | July 2021 | 22 |
| FFY 2020 | September 30, 2020 | April 2022 | 19 |
| FFY 2021 | September 30, 2021 | March 2023 | 18 |
| FFY 2022 | September 30, 2022 | May 2024 | 20 |
| FFY 2023 | September 30, 2023 | January 2025 | 16 |
| FFY 2024 | September 30, 2024 | Not posted as of October 26, 2026 | 25 so far |
Months are counted from the end of September to the month of release. Source: release dates printed on each report; health department report index checked October 26, 2026.
Fiscal year 2024 ended on September 30, 2024. Its report had not been posted on October 26, 2026, about 25 months later, which is longer than for any earlier year. The health department has not said why. The records themselves go further: CHIA has posted documentation for its fiscal year 2025 hospital data. No injury counts from those later records have been published, so this page stops at fiscal year 2023.
About 45,000 injury stays a year
There were 46,772 injury stays in fiscal year 2019, 43,897 in 2020 and 46,523 in 2023. The 2020 report notes that stays dropped sharply from March 2020, falling 21% below March 2019, and says the declines were “similar in magnitude” to those for some illness-related hospital stays in the early pandemic.
The 2020 to 2023 reports all use the 2020 population for their rates, so over those years the rate moves exactly with the count, from 624.4 to 661.8 stays per 100,000 residents. The 2019 rate, 671.6, uses the 2019 population. The 2021 report also warns that the source files were revised and re-released, so its figures “may differ from later reports.”
| Year | Stays | Rate per 100,000 | Unintentional | Self-inflicted | Assault |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FFY 2019 | 46,772 | 671.6 | 39,998 | 2,859 | 1,100 |
| FFY 2020 | 43,897 | 624.4 | 38,480 | 2,502 | 1,044 |
| FFY 2021 | 45,345 | 645.0 | 39,475 | 2,794 | 1,012 |
| FFY 2022 | 44,912 | 638.9 | 39,575 | 2,562 | 890 |
| FFY 2023 | 46,523 | 661.8 | 40,749 | 2,649 | 1,037 |
Undetermined intent, police action or war, and stays with no recorded cause are included in the total but not shown as columns. The 2019 rate uses the 2019 population; later rates use the 2020 population. Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, FFY 2019 to FFY 2023.
Falls cause more than half of all injury stays
Falls led every year by a wide margin. There were 26,543 fall-related stays in fiscal year 2023, 57.1% of all injury stays, against 26,043 in 2019 and 25,014 in 2020. Almost all were recorded as unintentional, and unintentional falls made up about two of every three unintentional injury stays in each year (65.0% in 2023).
The summaries do not say where falls happened or who fell. The health department’s separate reports on falls among older adults look at that group in more detail; they are not used here.
Overdose and poisoning are second
Poisoning and overdose caused 5,610 stays in fiscal year 2023. Drug poisonings were 5,334 of them. The count was highest of the five years in 2019, at 6,535, and lowest in 2022, at 5,485.
This is the one leading cause where intent is split. In 2023, 3,421 of the poisoning stays were recorded as unintentional and 2,027 as self-inflicted.
How road crashes put people in the hospital
Crashes on public roads caused 3,620 stays in fiscal year 2023, the third cause after falls and poisoning. There were 3,256 in fiscal year 2019 and 3,244 in 2020, and the count rose each year after that.
Most of those stays were for people inside a vehicle: drivers, passengers and people whose role was not recorded. Motorcyclists accounted for 622 stays in 2023, cyclists for 242 and pedestrians for between 495 and 505. Crashes off public roads, in driveways, parking lots and on private roads, are counted separately: 335 stays in 2023.
For crash deaths and serious injuries in police reports, see Massachusetts traffic injury by the numbers.
| Person type | FFY 2019 | FFY 2020 | FFY 2021 | FFY 2022 | FFY 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle occupants | 2,092 | 1,987-2,007* | 2,138 | 2,247 | 2,259 |
| Motorcyclists | 543 | 626 | 662 | 653 | 622 |
| Pedal cyclists | 163-174* | 222 | 190-202* | 199 | 242 |
| Pedestrians | 446 | 382-402* | 371 | 431 | 495-505* |
| All traffic crash stays | 3,256 | 3,244 | 3,368 | 3,530 | 3,620 |
*The state gives a range where an exact count would reveal a withheld one. Occupants include drivers, passengers and people whose role was not recorded. Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, FFY 2019 to FFY 2023.
Every cause in the 2023 report
The table below lists each cause the fiscal year 2023 report counts, all intents together, with its share of the 46,523 stays and its rate per 100,000 residents. Two groups are not in the rows: 943 other transport stays, such as crashes off public roads and cyclists or pedestrians hurt away from motor vehicles, and 1,879 stays with no recorded cause. The rows therefore add to fewer than the total.
| Cause | Stays | Share | Rate per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Falls | 26,543 | 57.1% | 377.6 |
| Poisoning and overdose | 5,610 | 12.1% | 79.8 |
| Crashes on public roads | 3,620 | 7.8% | 51.5 |
| Struck by or against an object | 1,541 | 3.3% | 21.9 |
| Cut or pierce | 784 | 1.7% | 11.2 |
| Natural or environmental (bites, stings, weather) | 497 | 1.1% | 7.1 |
| Fire or burn | 425 | 0.9% | 6.0 |
| Overexertion | 415 | 0.9% | 5.9 |
| Firearm | 288 | 0.6% | 4.1 |
| Machinery | 118 | 0.3% | 1.7 |
| Suffocation | 55 | 0.1% | 0.8 |
| Drowning or submersion | 27 | 0.1% | 0.4 |
| Other specified causes | 629 | 1.4% | 8.9 |
| Other causes, not classifiable | 207 | 0.4% | 2.9 |
| Cause not specified | 2,942 | 6.3% | 41.8 |
| All injury stays, FFY 2023 | 46,523 | 100% | 661.8 |
Causes are listed from most stays to fewest, with the other and unspecified causes last. Rates use the 2020 population of 7,029,917. Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, FFY 2023 (released January 2025).
Self-harm and assault in the counts
Accidents dominate the counts, at 87.6% of stays in fiscal year 2023. Self-inflicted injuries accounted for 2,649 stays (37.7 per 100,000) and assaults for 1,037 (14.8 per 100,000).
Firearm injuries led to 288 stays in 2023: 157 recorded as unintentional and 116 as assaults. Being struck by or against an object, the fourth cause overall, includes 496 stays recorded as assaults.
What these reports cannot tell you
- They count stays, not people. One person admitted twice is counted twice.
- They leave out people who died in the hospital, people treated only in an emergency department, and residents treated outside Massachusetts.
- They give no figures by age, sex, place or hospital.
- Each stay is classified by the first cause recorded. The health department says this may undercount some causes.
- Small counts are withheld or given as ranges, so some rows cannot be added up exactly.
- The 2021 figures may change: the source files were re-released.
- The 2019 rates use the 2019 population and later rates the 2020 population, so the 2019 rate is not calculated the same way.
A hospital stay is one part of an injury
These counts show how often injuries are serious enough to keep someone in the hospital, and how that load is spread across falls, overdoses, crashes and violence. They say nothing about who was responsible for any one injury. Whether an injury may support a claim depends on how and where it happened and who was responsible, questions the hospital counts do not answer.
Related research on this site covers crash injuries and deaths, fatal pedestrian crashes and workplace injuries.
Citing this page
Larson Law Boston, “Injury-Related Hospital Stays in Massachusetts,” published October 26, 2026. Data window: federal fiscal years 2019 to 2023 (October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2023). Data retrieved October 26, 2026.
The tables on this page may be reproduced with attribution and a link to this page. Press and research inquiries: marketing@dlarsonlaw.com
Sources
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, 2023. Released January 2025; spreadsheet and PDF. Read October 26, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, 2022. Released May 2024; spreadsheet and PDF. Read October 26, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, 2021. Released March 2023; spreadsheet and PDF. Read October 26, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, 2020. Released April 2022; spreadsheet and PDF. Read October 26, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Injury Surveillance Program, Injury-related Hospital Stays among MA Residents, 2019. Released July 2021; spreadsheet and PDF. Read October 26, 2026.
- Center for Health Information and Analysis, Case Mix Databases. Checked for any published count after fiscal year 2023. Read October 26, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Annual statewide injury reports. Index of the reports. Read October 26, 2026.
If you were hurt and have questions
These pages explain what the public record shows. They are not advice about a specific situation, and what applies to a particular case depends on its facts. If something here raises a question about your own circumstances, you are welcome to get in touch.