Health services research
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Health services research · Dec 2006
Variation in chemotherapy utilization in ovarian cancer: the relative contribution of geography.
This study investigates geographic variation in chemotherapy utilization for ovarian cancer in both absolute and relative terms and examines area characteristics associated with this variation. ⋯ While absolute levels of chemotherapy variation between geographic areas are large and statistically significant, this analysis suggests that the role of geography in determining who gets chemotherapy is small relative to individual medical characteristics. Nevertheless, while variation by medical characteristics can be medically justified, the same cannot be said for geographic variation. Our finding that density of oncology hospitals predicts chemotherapy use suggests that provider supply is positively correlated with geographic variation.
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Health services research · Dec 2006
Racial variation in end-of-life intensive care use: a race or hospital effect?
To determine if racial and ethnic variations exist in intensive care (ICU) use during terminal hospitalizations, and, if variations do exist, to determine whether they can be explained by systematic differences in hospital utilization by race/ethnicity. ⋯ The majority of observed differences in terminal ICU use among blacks and Hispanics were attributable to their use of hospitals with higher ICU use rather than to racial differences in ICU use within the same hospital.