Hospital characteristics and mortality rates

Article Abstract:

The characteristics and mortality rates of various types of hospitals are studied annually by the Health Care Financing Administration. In the 3,100 hospitals studied in 1989, the average mortality was 116 deaths per 1,000 patients. These rates were adjusted for the characteristics of the patients that affect the outcome, such as severity of illness. Adjusted mortality rates for private, for-profit hospitals (121 per 1,000) and for public hospitals (120 per 1,000) were significantly higher than for private, non-profit hospitals (114 per 1,000). Private teaching hospitals had adjusted mortality rates (108 per 1,000) that were lower than private non-teaching hospitals (116 per 1,000). Osteopathic hospitals, where there is an emphasis on the musculoskeletal system, had adjusted mortality rates higher than average (129 per 1,000). The hospital characteristic most closely associated with adjusted mortality rates was the level of training of the hospital personnel. Hospitals with greater numbers of board-certified specialists and registered nurses had lowest mortality rates. The type of ownership of the hospital and indicators of financial status were also associated with the mortality rates. However, after adjustments for the level of medical personnel training, these differences were only weakly significant. Therefore, certain characteristics of hospitals are associated with the quality of care and are reflected by the mortality rates of the hospitals.

Research, Evaluation, Mortality, Patient outcomes, Hospitals, Hospital patients, Hospitals, Teaching, Teaching hospitals, Osteopathic hospitals

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Racial and community factors influencing coronary artery bypass graft surgery rates for all 1986 Medicare patients

Article Abstract:

Whites are three times as likely to have coronary artery bypass surgery as blacks, even though the rates of hospitalization for heart attacks are similar in blacks and whites. The disparity is even greater in the Southeast, where whites are six times more likely to have surgery as blacks. Data on Medicare patients in 1986 show that the coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) rate was 27.1 for every 10,000 whites but only 7.6 for every 10,000 blacks. Several southeastern states had much higher CABG rates in whites and lower rates in blacks. Geographic variations in CABG rates were not caused by geographic variations in heart attack rates. And while the CABG rate in whites increased as the supply of surgeons increased, this was not the case in blacks. Lower CABG rates in blacks could be caused by poverty, unwillingness to have surgery, prejudice on the part of the physician or ineligibility for Medicare.

Demographic aspects, Coronary artery bypass

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Hospitalization costs associated with homelessness in New York City

Article Abstract:

Homeless people incur higher health care costs than other low-income groups. Researchers hospitalization rates and length of stay among all homeless people and other low-income groups admitted to New York City hospitals during 1992-1993. Half of the hospital admissions among homeless people were for substance abuse or mental illness, compared to only 23% of the admissions in other low-income patients. The homeless patients stayed in the hospital 36% longer than the other low-income patients. Many of the conditions homeless people were hospitalized for were preventable.

Health aspects, Medical care utilization, Homeless persons, Hospital utilization, Hospital stays

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