AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A state advisory panel looking into what drives Maine’s second-highest-in-the-nation per capita health care costs has found that 75 percent of the use of hospital emergency departments in the state is avoidable.

The Advisory Council on Health Care Development noted that steering patients to less-costly routine office care would reduce unnecessary emergency room visits.

Other recommendations include prevention efforts and use of evidence-based public health strategies to reduce chronic illness, expanded use of electronic medical records and system-wide payment reform that provides incentives for outcomes rather than volume of services.

The council issued its report Monday to the Legislature.