Unknown

Dataset Information

0

Methods for Measuring Racial Differences in Hospitals Outcomes Attributable to Disparities in Use of High-Quality Hospital Care.


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

altmetric image

Publications

Methods for Measuring Racial Differences in Hospitals Outcomes Attributable to Disparities in Use of High-Quality Hospital Care.

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]

Similar Datasets

| S-EPMC11612663 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC3371391 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6545386 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC9344383 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC5915905 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC4307381 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC9708325 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC5657388 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC8432274 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC11592423 | biostudies-literature