Should Hospitals Keep Their Patients Longer? The Role of Inpatient Care in Reducing Post-Discharge Mortality / Ann P. Bartel, Carri W. Chan, Song-Hee (Hailey) Kim.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bartel, Ann P.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Chan, Carri W.

Kim, Song-Hee (Hailey).

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w20499.

NBER working paper series no. w20499

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.

Summary:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Quality Forum have endorsed 30-day mortality rates as important indicators of hospital quality. Concerns have been raised, however, as to whether post-discharge mortality rates are reasonable measures of hospital quality as they consider the frequency of an event that occurs after a patient is discharged and no longer under the watch and care of the hospital. Using a large dataset comprised of all hospital encounters of every Medicare patient from 2000 to 2011 and an instrumental variables methodology to address the potential endogeneity bias in hospital length-of-stay, we find evidence that 30-day mortality rates are appropriate measures of hospital quality. For patients with diagnoses of Pneumonia or Acute Myocardial Infarction, an additional day in the hospital could decrease 30-day mortality rates by up to 12.8%. Moreover, we find that, from a social planner's perspective, the gains achieved in reducing mortality rates far exceed the cost of keeping these patients in the hospital for an additional day.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2014.