Predictive value of the present-on-admission indicator for hospital-associated hemorrhage

•Hospitals, researchers, and regulators want to prevent hospital-associated complications.•The Present on Admission (POA) indicator helps differentiate hospital-associated complications.•It is unknown if the POA indicator is accurate for some diagnoses, such as hemorrhage.•At two sites, the POA indicators had an 85% positive predictive value for hemorrhage.•The POA indicator for hemorrhagic diagnoses, may thus be appropriate.