Socioeconomic status and risk for substandard medical care.
OBJECTIVE
To assess whether the socioeconomic status of the patient was associated with the risk of adverse events, defined as medical injuries caused by medical management, and the proportion of these events that resulted from substandard care.


METHODS
51 hospitals in New York State.


METHODS
Rates of medical injury and substandard care by gender, race, income, and payer status were developed from reviews of 30,195 medical records in New York in 1984. We evaluated these socioeconomic parameters in a multivariate analysis, while controlling for hospital-level factors.


RESULTS
We found that uninsured patients (odds ratio, 2.35; 95% confidence interval, 1.40 to 3.95) were at greater risk for substandard care. The characteristics of the hospitals to which patients were admitted did not affect this result. Race, gender, and income were not independently associated with risk for medical injury or substandard care in multivariate analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that the uninsured are at greater risk for suffering medical injury due to substandard medical care.
Burstin
H R
HR
Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115.
Lipsitz
S R
SR
Brennan
T A
TA
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007049:Iatrogenic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008318:Malpractice / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009518:New York / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000191:economics* / Q000209:etiology