Differences did not persist after adjustment for in-hospital procedures
FRIDAY, Aug. 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Among patients with cardiac arrest (CA), teaching hospital status is associated with decreased in-hospital mortality, according to a study published in the Sept. 1 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.
Elena V. Dolmatova, M.D., from the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, and colleagues examined outcomes of patients with CA in teaching versus non-teaching hospital settings using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Data were included for 731,107 cases of CA: 47.6 percent were managed in teaching hospitals and 51.4 percent were managed in nonteaching hospitals.
The researchers found that CA patients in teaching hospitals were younger, had fewer comorbidities, were less likely to be white, and were more likely to be uninsured. Mortality was significantly lower in teaching versus non-teaching hospitals (55.3 versus 58.8 percent; P < 0.001). After adjustment for baseline patient and hospital characteristics, mortality remained significantly lower (odds ratio, 0.917; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.899 to 0.937). After adjustment for in-hospital procedures, the survival benefit was no longer observed (odds ratio, 0.997; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.974 to 1.02).
“In conclusion, teaching status of the hospital was associated with decreased in-hospital mortality in patients with CA,” the authors write. “The differences in mortality disappeared after adjusting for in-hospital procedures, indicating that routine application of novel therapeutic methods in patients with CA in teaching hospitals could translate into improved survival outcomes.”
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