title: Hospital type and patient outcomes: an empirical examination using AMI readmission and mortality records.
abstract: This paper investigates whether there are differences in patient outcomes across different types of hospitals using patient-level data on readmission and mortality associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Hospitals are grouped according to their ownership type (private, public teaching, public non-teaching) and their location (metropolitan, country and remote country). Using data collected from 130 Victorian hospitals on 19,000 patients admitted to a hospital with their first AMI between January 2001 and December 2003, we consider how the likelihood of unplanned re-admission and mortality varies across hospital type. We find that there are significant differences across hospital types in the observed patient outcomes - private hospitals persistently outperform public hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Vic., Australia. melb-inst@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: Paul H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Webster
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Witt
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D006777:Hospitals, Proprietary / Q000592:standards*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000639:trends*; D014739:Victoria; D055815:Young Adult