title: Inter-hospital mortality and morbidity variation in Pennsylvania.
abstract: A 1986 Pennsylvania law requires the public disclosure of hospital mortality and morbidity rates. This study of hospital admissions in 1989 and 1990 examines the variation in these health-outcome indicators for the 10 most frequently occurring DRGs in the adult medical service in a sample of 20 Pennsylvania hospitals. These mortality and morbidity rates are adjusted for admission severity, DRG, age, and sex, using a logistic regression model. The null hypothesis of no significant variation among hospitals is rejected by the statistically significant (p < 0.01) results of a likelihood ratio test on the hospital variables in logit models for both mortality and morbidity. Test results also show that 4 (20 percent) of 20 hospitals have statistically significant (p < 0.05) adjusted mortality rates, and 4 (20 percent) of 20 hospitals have significant morbidity rates. Such information may impact hospital management practices in a variety of ways.
authors.affiliation: Master of Health Administration Program, Graduate School of Management, Clark University, Worcester, MA.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Bradbury
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Golec
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Stearns
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Steen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index