Study: Worst Hospitals Treat Twice As Many Minorities, Poor Patients As Best Hospitals

The nation’s 178 "worst" hospitals — the lowest-quality, highest-cost institutions — care for more than twice the proportion of elderly minority and poor patients as the nation's 122 "best" hospitals where costs are lowest and quality highest, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

Researchers examined the associations among quality, costs and types of patients served in approximately 3,200 hospitals nationwide. The researchers then identified 122 "best" hospitals (those that were in the highest quartile of quality and lowest quartile of risk-adjusted costs) and 178 "worst" hospitals (those in the lowest quartile of quality and the highest quartile of costs).

 

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They found the patients at the worst institutions are more likely than patients elsewhere to die of certain conditions, such as heart attacks and pneumonia. Authors of the study suggest these hospitals and their patients may be the ones most at risk under the value-based purchasing system that could cut payments to hospitals that fail to meet quality metrics starting in 2013.

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