title: Hospital racial composition: a neglected factor in cardiac arrest survival disparities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Racial disparities in survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have been reported, but their causes remain uncertain. We sought to determine if hospital racial composition accounted for survival differences for patients hospitalized after cardiac arrest.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated hospitalizations of white and black Medicare beneficiaries (2000-2007) admitted from the emergency department to the intensive care unit with a diagnosis of cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation. We examined unadjusted survival rates and developed a multivariable logistic regression model that included patient and hospital factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed 68,115 cardiac arrest admissions. Unadjusted survival to hospital discharge was worse for blacks (n = 7,942) compared with whites (n = 60,173) (30% vs 33%, P < .001). In multivariate analyses accounting for patient and hospital factors, adjusted probability of survival was worse for black patients at hospitals with higher proportions of black patients (31%, 95% CI 29%-32%) compared with predominately white hospitals (46%, 95% CI 36%-57%; P = .003). Similarly, whites had worse risk-adjusted survival at hospitals with higher proportions of black patients (28%, 95% CI 27%-30%) compared with predominately white hospitals (32%, 95% CI 31%-33%, P = .006). Blacks were more likely to be admitted to hospitals with low survival rates (23% vs 15%, P < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hospitals with large black patient populations had worse cardiac arrest outcomes than predominantly white hospitals, and blacks were more likely to be admitted to these high-mortality hospitals. Understanding these differences in survival outcomes may uncover the causes for these disparities and lead to improved survival for all cardiac arrest victims.
authors.affiliation: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, USA. raina.merchant@uphs.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Raina M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Merchant
authors.forename: Lance B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Feifei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Groeneveld
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015996:Survival Rate; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D044465:White People