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MORE THAN 4 MILLION hospital stays could possibly be avoided by improving the quality of primary care, enhancing patients' access to effective treatment and getting more Americans to adopt healthy behaviors, according to a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Rockville, Md. The agency estimates that $29 billion was spent on hospital care for 12 potentially preventable conditions in 2004, based on data from AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.