334574
Quality of Surgical and Pneumonia Care in Minority-Serving and Racially Integrated Hospitals
Objective: To explore the association between quality of care for surgical and pneumonia patients and the racial/ethnic composition of hospitals’ patients.
Data Source: Our primary data was surgical and pneumonia processes of care indicators from the 2012 Medicare Hospital Compare Data. We merged this data with information from the 2011 American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals. We computed the racial and ethnic composition of hospital patients using 2008 data from the Healthcare Costs and Utilization Project.
Study Design: The sample included 1,198 acute care general hospitals from 11 states: AZ, CA, FL, IA, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, WA and WI. We compared quality across minority-serving, racially integrated and majority-white hospitals using unconditional quantile regression models controlling for hospital and market characteristics.
Principal Findings: We found quality differences between the lowest performing minority-serving, racially integrated and majority-white hospitals. As we moved from 10th to 90th quantile the quality differences between hospitals by patients’ racial composition disappeared. In other words, the best minority-serving and racially integrated hospitals performed as well as the best majority hospitals.
Conclusions: Efforts to improve quality of care for patients in minority-serving and racially integrated hospitals should focus on the lowest performers.
Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health educationBiostatistics, economics
Diversity and culture
Provision of health care to the public
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
discuss disparities in quality of care by race and ethnicity
discuss variation of quality of care in minority serving hospitals
Keyword(s): Minority Health, Hospitals
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a health economist who has over 20 years of experience studying healthcare access and quality for minority, low income and other vulnerable populations.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.