title: The effect of hospital organizational characteristics on postoperative complications.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if there is a relationship between the risk of postoperative complications and the nonclinical hospital characteristics of bed size, ownership structure, relative urbanicity, regional location, teaching status, and area income status.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study involved a secondary analysis of 2006 administrative hospital data from a number of U.S. states. This data, gathered annually by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) via the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) Healthcare Utilization Project (HCUP), was analyzed using probit regressions to measure the effects of several nonclinical hospital categories on seven diagnostic groupings. The study model included postoperative complications as well as additional potentially confounding variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed mixed outcomes for each of the hospital characteristic groupings. Subdividing these groupings to correspond with the HCUP data analysis allowed a greater understanding of how hospital characteristics' may affect postoperative outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nonclinical hospital characteristics do affect the various postoperative complications, but they do so inconsistently.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Public Health, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knight
mesh_terms: D004469:Economics, Hospital; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006761:Hospitals / Q000145:classification* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D010067:Ownership; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016270:United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality