Hospital religious affiliation and outcomes for high-risk infants

Melissa M. Garrido, Kirk C. Allison, Mark J. Bergeron, Bryan Dowd

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of hospital organizational affiliation on perinatal outcomes is unknown. Using the 2004 American Hospital Association Annual Survey and Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases, the authors examined relationships among organizational affiliation, equipment and service availability and provision, and in-hospital mortality for 5,133 infants across five states born with very low and extremely low birth weight and congenital anomalies. In adjusted bivariate probit selection models, the authors found that government hospitals had significantly higher mortality rates than not-for-profit nonreligious hospitals. Mortality differences among other types of affiliation (Catholic, not-for-profit religious, not-for-profit nonreligious, and for-profit) were not statistically significant. This is encouraging as health care reform efforts call for providers at facilities with different institutional values to coordinate care across facilities. Although there are anecdotes of facility religious affiliation being related to health care decisions, the authors did not find evidence of these relationships in their data.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)316-338
Number of pages23
JournalMedical Care Research and Review
Volume69
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2012

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This grant was supported in part by funding to Dr. Dowd from the Wessner Foundation and MacLaurinCSF.

Keywords

  • hospital ownership
  • infant mortality
  • religious affiliation

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