Hospitals that spend more money caring for patients with heart attack, heart failure, stroke, hip fracture, pneumonia and serious stomach bleeding had better patient survival, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Other key findings from the study:
- Patients treated at the highest-spending hospitals for heart failure had a 25 percent smaller chance of dying while they were there than patients treated at lowest-spending hospitals
- The highest-spending hospitals spent more than three times as much as the lowest-spenders.
- The association between hospital spending and inpatient mortality did not vary by region or hospital size
The study does not identify the specific costly interventions that high-spending hospitals undertake to achieve this mortality benefit.
(Sources: Kaiser Daily Health Policy Project, http://kaiserhealthnews.org, February 1, 2011; Reuters, http://www.reuters.com, January 31, 2011; The Archives of Internal Medicine, http://www.annals.org, February, 2011)