STUDY QUESTION Is a higher use of resources by physicians associated with a reduced risk of malpractice claims? METHODS Using data on nearly all admissions to acute care hospitals in Florida during 2000-09 linked to malpractice history of the attending physician, this study investigated whether physicians in seven specialties with higher average hospital charges in a year were less likely to ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We have previously reported the difference in length of stay and hospital charges for patients with cerebral aneurysms treated with either clipping or coiling at our institution. We now report an analysis of the same comparison at a national level conducted using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database. METHODS We obtained the Nationwide Inpatient Sample from the Healt...

HYPOTHESIS Among patients undergoing urgent surgery for left-sided diverticulitis, those admitted on weekends vs weekdays have higher rates of Hartmann procedure and adverse outcomes. DESIGN Analysis of data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample between January 2002 and December 2008. Unadjusted and risk-adjusted generalized linear regression models were used. SETTING Academic research. PA...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between weekend admission to hospital and 11 hospital acquired conditions recently considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid as "never events" for which resulting healthcare costs are not reimbursed. DESIGN National analysis. SETTING US Nationwide Inpatient Sample discharge database. PARTICIPANTS 351 million patients discharged from US hospi...

Medicare expenditures of hospital outpatient department (HOPD) services are growing rapidly, prompting congressional interest in a prospective payment system. In this article, the authors identify frequently provided services and examine service volume and charges in the HOPD. Relatively few services drive Medicare HOPD spending, and volume is dominated by visits, imaging and laboratory tests, ...

BACKGROUND Depression is a prevalent mental health disorder and the fourth leading cause of disability in the world as per the World Health Organization. Use of antidepressants can lead to adverse drug events (ADEs), defined as any injury resulting from medication use. This study aimed to examine changes in hospital admissions due to antidepressant-related ADEs (ArADEs) among different socio-de...

Objective: To determine the influencing factors for hospital cost of patients with spinal fractures using E-CHAID category tree, we performed this retrospective study. Patients and methods: The data on 2109 patients with spinal fractures in our hospital, including the comorbidity conditions, surgical and other clinical characteristics, were collected. After Pearson correlation test was performe...

Twenty-five patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) implanted intrathoracically (group I) were compared with 25 patients who underwent implant using the nonthoracotomy approach (group II). All systems were implanted by the same medical team, in the same high volume implanting center. Indications for implantation were comparable in both groups. Patient characteristics were n...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Acute cholecystitis is a fairly common inpatient diagnosis among the gastrointestinal disorders. The aim of this study was to use a national database of US hospitals to evaluate the incidence and costs of hospital admissions associated with acute cholecystitis. METHOD We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample Database (NIS) for all patients in which acute cholecystitis (IC...

Substantial numbers of children with cardiomyopathy are now surviving into adulthood, making it essentially a chronic disease. As a chronic condition, it may be best treated through comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment programs. Such programs have improved health outcomes and reduced costs in managing other pediatric chronic diseases and heart failure in adults, but the treatment and cost...