Hip replacement patients with poorer overall health are the most likely to benefit from teaching hospitals, Dhruv Khullar, MD, and Austin Frakt, PhD, report in a viewpoint article in The New York Times.
Here are four things to know:
1. Dr. Khullar is a hospitalist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and a researcher at the Weill Cornell Department of Healthcare Policy and Research in New York City.
2. Dr. Frakt is the director of the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System, an associate professor at Boston University's School of Public Health and an adjunct associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
3. Drs. Khullar and Frakt referenced a Health Affairs study of Medicare hospitalizations that found almost all patients are more likely to survive at teaching hospitals, which tend to incur higher costs. The study analyzed more than 11 million Medicare hospitalizations. Almost all patients regardless of overall health had lower mortality rates at teaching hospitals.
4. Drs. Khullar and Frakt stated the shift to lower-intensity care settings should not sacrifice quality of care in order to save costs.
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