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There is marked debate by physicians and policymakers regarding the creation of regionalized acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) centers. A central issue is whether outcomes of care, particularly mortality, differ as a function of hospital experience with patients with AIDS. We evaluated the experience of 257 patients with AIDS andPneumocystis cariniipneumonia treated at 15 California hospitals between October 1986 and October 1987. An overall 15.2% in-hospital mortality rate was observed. However, a markedly lower in-hospital mortality rate was observed in the group of patients treated at hospitals that had a high level of experience with patients with AIDS (≥30 human immunodeficiency virus-related discharges per 10 000 hospital discharges) relative to the group treated at hospitals with less experience (JAMA1989;261:2975-2979)
Cherie Bennett (Fri,) studied this question.