Outcomes for whites and blacks at hospitals that disproportionately care for black Medicare beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Hospital care for blacks is concentrated among a small number of hospitals and whether they have worse outcomes across common medical conditions is unknown.

Data source

We used the 2007 100% Medicare file to calculate 30- and 90-day mortality rates for white and black patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), congestive heart failure (CHF), or pneumonia.

Study design

We ranked all hospitals in the country by their proportion of discharged black patients and identified the top 10 percent of these hospitals as black serving. We examined race-specific adjusted mortality rates and adjusted for differences in hospital characteristics.

Principal findings

At 30 days, black-serving hospitals had, compared with nonblack-serving hospitals, simila

SUBMITTER: Lopez L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3589958 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature