The opening of a specialty cardiac hospital is associated with an increase in the rate of coronary revascularization in a region, compared to new cardiac programs opened at general hospitals, according to a study in the March 7 issue of JAMA.
Specialty hospitals, which provide care limited to specific medical conditions or procedures, are opening at a rapid pace across the United States, according to background information in the article. Proponents argue that specialty hospitals provide higher quality health care and greater cost-efficiency by concentrating physician skills and hospital resources needed for managing complex diseases. Critics claim that specialty hospitals focus primarily on low-risk patients and provide less uncompensated care, which places competing general hospitals at significant financial risk.
"However, specialty hospitals raise an additional concern beyond their potential to simply redistribute cases within a health care market. Specialty hospitals are typically smaller than general hospitals and have high rates of physician ownership. Physician owners may have stronger financial incentives for providing services that fuel greater utilization," the authors write.
Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, M.D., M.P.H., of the VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, Ann Arbor, Mich., and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether the opening of specialty cardiac hospitals was associated with greater utilization of coronary revascularization services. The researchers calculated annual population-based rates for total revascularization (coronary artery bypass graft [CABG] plus percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]), CABG, and PCI of Medicare beneficiaries from 1995 through 2003. Hospital referral regions (HRRs) were used to categorize health care markets into those where (1) cardiac hospitals opened (n = 13), (2) new cardiac programs opened at general hospitals (n = 142), and (3) no new program
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Contact: Bonnie Johnson
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JAMA and Archives Journals
6-Mar-2007