• John A Romley, Anupam B Jena, and Dana P Goldman.
• Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, University of Southern California, 650 Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
• Ann. Intern. Med. 2011 Feb 1; 154 (3): 160-7.

BackgroundEvidence shows that high Medicare spending is not associated with better health outcomes at a regional level and that high spending in hospitals is not associated with better process quality. The relationship between hospital spending and inpatient mortality is less well understood.ObjectiveTo determine the association between hospital spending and risk-adjusted inpatient mortality.DesignRetrospective cohort study.SettingDatabase of discharge records from 1999 to 2008 for 208 California hospitals included in The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.Patients2 545 352 patients hospitalized during 1999 to 2008 with 1 of 6 major medical conditions.MeasurementsInpatient mortality rates among patients admitted to hospitals with varying levels of end-of-life hospital spending.ResultsFor each of 6 diagnoses at admission-acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, acute stroke, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hip fracture, and pneumonia-patient admission to hig her-spending hospitals was associated with lower risk-adjusted inpatient mortality. During 1999 to 2003, for example, patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction to California hospitals in the highest quintile of hospital spending had lower inpatient mortality than did those admitted to hospitals in the lowest quintile (odds ratio, 0.862 [95% CI, 0.742 to 0.983]). Predicted inpatient deaths would increase by 1831 if all patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction were cared for in hospitals in the lowest quintile of spending rather than the highest. The association between hospital spending and inpatient mortality did not vary by region or hospital size.LimitationUnobserved predictors of mortality create uncertainty about whether greater inpatient hospital spending leads to lower inpatient mortality.ConclusionHospitals that spend more have lower inpatient mortality for 6 common medical conditions.

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