Why the study?
Does care at safety-net hospitals affect surgical outcomes and cost in patients undergoing elective surgical procedures?
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.
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Should not yet change elective surgery referrals; leaves open whether resource interventions can mitigate safety-net disparities.
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.
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Hoehn et al. (2015) studied this question.
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