Does care at safety-net hospitals affect surgical outcomes and cost in patients undergoing elective surgical procedures?
Safety-net hospitals are associated with inferior surgical outcomes and increased costs for elective procedures, likely due to hospital resources rather than patient factors.
These data suggest that intrinsic qualities of safety-net hospitals lead to inferior surgical outcomes and increased cost across 9 elective surgical procedures. These outcomes are likely owing to hospital resources and not necessarily patient factors. In addition, impending changes to reimbursement may have a negative effect on the surgical care at these centers.
Hoehn et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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