Urologist ownership of ambulatory surgery centers and urinary stone surgery use.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To understand how physician ownership of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) relates to surgery use.

Data source

Using the State Ambulatory Surgery Databases, we identified patients undergoing outpatient surgery for urinary stone disease in Florida (1998-2002).

Study design

We empirically derived a measure of physician ownership and externally validated it through public data. We employed linear mixed models to examine the relationship between ownership status and surgery use. We measured how a urologist's surgery use varied by the penetration of owners within his local health care market.

Principal findings

Owners performed a greater proportion of their surgeries in ASCs than nonowners (39.6 percent versus 8.0 percent, p<.001), and their utilization r

SUBMITTER: Hollingsworth JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2739033 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature