Hospital case volume and clinical outcomes for peptic ulcer treatment.
BACKGROUND
No study has explored the volume-outcome relationship for peptic ulcer treatment.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between peptic ulcer case volume per hospital, on the one hand, and in-hospital mortality and 14-day readmission rates, on the other, using a nationwide population-based dataset.


METHODS
A retrospective cross-sectional study, set in Taiwan.


METHODS
There were 48,250 peptic ulcer patients included. Each patient was assigned to one of three hospital volume groups: low-volume (< or = 189 case), medium volume (190-410 cases), and high volume (> or = 411 cases).


METHODS
Logistic regression analysis employing generalized estimating equations was used to examine the adjusted relationship of hospital volume with in-hospital mortality and 14-day readmission.


RESULTS
After adjusting for other factors, results showed that the likelihood of in-hospital mortality for peptic ulcer patients treated by low-volume hospitals (mortality rate = 0.68%) was 1.6 times (p < 0.05) that of those treated in high-volume hospitals (mortality rate = 0.72%) and 1.4 times (p < 0.05) that of those treated in medium-volume hospitals (mortality rate = 0.73%). The adjusted odds ratio of 14-day readmission likewise declined with increasing hospital volume, with the odds of 14-day readmission for those patients treated by low-volume hospitals being 1.5 times (p < 0.001) greater than for high-volume hospitals and 1.3 times (p < 0.01) greater than for medium-volume hospitals.


CONCLUSIONS
We found that, after adjusting for other factors, peptic ulcer patients treated in the low-volume hospitals had inferior clinical outcomes compared to those treated in medium-volume or high-volume ones.
Lou
Horng-Yuan
HY
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Lin
Herng-Ching
HC
Chen
Kuan-Yang
KY
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome