The health care manager
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The health care manager · Oct 2012
The US Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Health Care spending chasm: better understanding some of the reasons for the gap and some suggestions as to how it might be narrowed.
Comparisons of health care spending between the United States and the rest of the world are frequently made. This article examines macrolevel secondary data comparing health care spending in the United States and other OECD countries, but this comparison does not necessarily present a complete picture. This article puts the US OECD health care spending gap into better context by examining the implications of population differences, quality-of-life spending, obesity trends, and defensive medicine and their contribution to US health care costs.
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The health care manager · Oct 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyHospital bed utilization by teaching and nonteaching medical services.
A study was undertaken to determine whether hospital bed utilization is different between teaching and nonteaching hospitalist services. During a 2-year period, the average length of stay (ALOS), case-mix index, readmissions within 30 days of discharge, and percentage of 1-day stays were compared between these services. To ameliorate confounders, the ALOS was recalculated (ALOS revised) after excluding patients with length of stay of more than 20 days and those originally admitted to the intensive care unit. ⋯ The mean percentage of readmissions within 30 days of discharge and 1-day stays were not significantly different between group 1 and groups 2 and 3. Hospital bed utilization in the teaching service was superior to the nonteaching hospitalist services. Further research should explore the reasons for the differences between these models of care.