Patients receiving care at a for-profit hospital are much more likely to be readmitted to that institution than if they received care elsewhere, a new study finds.
Researchers with the University of Illinois-Chicago said they made that discovery after analyzing hospital readmissions data related to six common diseases. They found that hospitals operating for a profit fared much worse than their public or nonprofit counterparts when it comes to keeping patients from coming back.
“It is remarkable to see such clear data in a study like this,” Andrew Boyd, study author and an associate professor of biomedical and health information sciences at UIC, said in a statement. “There is not a single category in which for-profit hospitals shined when it came to readmissions. This was unexpected.”
The study did not explore why for-profit hospitals fared worse with readmissions, but authors speculated it may be due to a lack of resources, given higher taxes and a focus on maximizing profits, both of which may steer dollars away from staffing and medical technology.Researchers analyzed data from the Hospital Readmission and Reduction Program to reach their conclusions. Disease analyzed included heart attack, heart failure, coronary artery bypass surgery, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and total hip or knee replacement surgery. The results were published in PLOS ONE.
