CONTEXT The Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows hospitals to self-report the steps they have taken toward implementing the Safe Practices for Better Healthcare endorsed by the National Quality Forum. The Leapfrog Group currently ranks hospital performance on the safe practices initiative by quartiles and presents this information to the public on its Web site. It is unknown how well a hospital's re...

BACKGROUND Nearly one quarter of trauma patients are uninsured and hospitals recoup less than 20% of inpatient costs for their care. This study examines changes to hospital reimbursement for inpatient trauma care if the full coverage expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were in effect. METHODS We abstracted nonelderly adults (ages 18-64 years) admitted for trauma from the Nat...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate changes in the epidemiological features of Clostridium difficile colitis in hospitalized patients in the United States (C difficile is a common cause of nosocomial diarrhea that has been shown to be increasing in virulence in Canada and across Europe). DESIGN Cohort analysis of all patients with C difficile colitis in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. SETTING Population...

The authors performed a retrospective cohort comparison using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample for 1999 through 2002 of acute ischemic stroke admissions. Mortality was compared based on the use of thrombolysis. Hospital mortality was significantly greater for the thrombolysis cohort (10.1% vs 5.8%) as was the rate of secondary intracranial hemorrhage (4.2% vs 0.4%). US community experience in th...

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using ICD-9CM codes, all adult patients presenting with open tibia fractures in the 2003–2012 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) were included in the analysis. Flap rates during the index hospitalization were evaluated over time and against demographics, comorbidities, rates of amputation, and patient and hospital factors regarding access to care. NIS data was multiplied t...

Trends in Pathogens Among Patients Hospitalized for Pneumonia From 1993 to 2011 The Nationwide Inpatient Sample aggregated data from approximately 20%ofUShospital admissions from1993 to 2011. Prior literature found that pneumonia admissions decreased following the introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine in 2000.1 The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modificati...

Prior research has suggested that regional weather patterns impact the risk of rupture of cerebral aneurysms, but the findings in the literature have been inconsistent. Furthermore, no nationwide analysis to date has examined the association between meteorological factors and the post-procedural outcomes of patients after the treatment for ruptured cerebral aneurysms. The purpose of this study ...

IMPORTANCE There is growing interest in the use of health care resources by critical access hospitals (CAHs), key providers of medical care for many rural populations. OBJECTIVE To evaluate discharge practice patterns and use of post-acute care after surgical admissions at CAHs. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We used data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2005-2009) and American Hosp...