Method to develop health care peer groups for quality and financial comparisons across hospitals.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To develop and explore the characteristics of a novel "nearest neighbor" methodology for creating peer groups for health care facilities.

Data sources

Data were obtained from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) databases. STATISTICAL METHODS AND FINDINGS: Peer groups are developed by first calculating the multidimensional Euclidean distance between each of 133 VA medical centers based on 16 facility characteristics. Each medical center then serves as the center for its own peer group, and the nearest neighbor facilities in terms of Euclidean distance comprise the peer facilities. We explore the attributes and characteristics of the nearest neighbor peer groupings. In addition, we construct standard cluster analysis-derived peer groups and compare the characteri

SUBMITTER: Byrne MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2677055 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature