Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Objective
To compare two approaches to measuring racial/ethnic disparities in the use of high-quality hospitals.Data sources
Simulated data.Study design
Through simulations, we compared the "minority-serving" approach of assessing differences in risk-adjusted outcomes at minority-serving and non-minority-serving hospitals with a "fixed-effect" approach that estimated the reduction in adverse outcomes if the distribution of minority and white patients across hospitals was the same. We evaluated each method's ability to detect and measure a disparity in outcomes caused by minority patients receiving care at poor-quality hospitals, which we label a "between-hospital" disparity, and to reject it when the disparity in outcomes was caused by factors other than hospital quality.Principal findings
The minority-serving and fixed-effect approaches correctly identified between-hospital disparities in quality when they existed and rejected them when racial differences in outcomes were caused by other disparities; however, the fixed-effect approach has many advantages. It does not require an ad hoc definition of a minority-serving hospital, and it estimated the magnitude of the disparity accurately, while the minority-serving approach underestimated the disparity by 35-46 percent.Conclusions
Researchers should consider using the fixed-effect approach for measuring disparities in use of high-quality hospital care by vulnerable populations.
SUBMITTER: Hebert PL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5346505 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Hebert Paul L PL Howell Elizabeth A EA Wong Edwin S ES Hernandez Susan E SE Rinne Seppo T ST Sulc Christine A CA Neely Emily L EL Liu Chuan-Fen CF
Health services research 20160603 2
<h4>Objective</h4>To compare two approaches to measuring racial/ethnic disparities in the use of high-quality hospitals.<h4>Data sources</h4>Simulated data.<h4>Study design</h4>Through simulations, we compared the "minority-serving" approach of assessing differences in risk-adjusted outcomes at minority-serving and non-minority-serving hospitals with a "fixed-effect" approach that estimated the reduction in adverse outcomes if the distribution of minority and white patients across hospitals was ...[more]