Association of Hospital Spending Intensity With Mortality and Readmission Rates in Ontario Hospitals.

The article discusses a study on the association of hospital spending intensity with readmission rates (RR), quality of care and patient outcomes in hospitals in Ontario. The researchers evaluated patients aged 18 to 105 years, with first hospital admission for acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, hip fracture or colon cancer between April 1, 1998 and March 31, 2008. They found that age- and sex-adjusted mortality and RR in highest-spending hospitals were lower than in lowest-spending hospitals. They also observed similar major cardiac events among patients in the two hospital expenditure groups.