To better understand the financial viability of hospital emergency departments (EDs), we created national estimates of the cost to hospitals of providing ED care and the associated hospital revenue using hospital financial reports and patient claims data from 2009. We then estimated the effect the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have on the future profitability of providing ED care. We estimated...

A $35 billion program was passed by the federal government to promote the adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR). However, billions of incentive payments were flowing out without clear evidence of effective implementation. This paper tries to understand hospitals’ adoption choice of EMR vendors, particularly to evaluate choosing the locally market-leading vendor. Hospitals benefit from us...

STUDY OBJECTIVES We evaluated differences in processes and outcomes of HIV-related pneumonia care among patients in Veterans Affairs (VA), public, and for-profit and not-for-profit private hospitals in the United States. We compared the results of our current study (1995 to 1997) with those of our previous study that included a sample of patients receiving care during the years 1987 to 1990 to ...

OBJECTIVES We analyze whether hazard rates of shutting down trauma centers are higher due to financial pressures or in areas with vulnerable populations (such as minorities or the poor). MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective study of all hospitals with trauma center services in urban areas in the continental US between 1990 and 2005, identified from the American Hospital Association A...

Three types of entities-nonprofit, for-profit, and government-own hospitals. Yet we know neither whether hospital types specialize in different medical services nor how service profitability affects specialization. In this econometric analysis of American Hospital Association data for every U.S. urban, acute care hospital (1988-2000), more than thirty services were categorized as relatively pro...

It has been hypothesized that higher tax rates lead to a larger market share for nonprofit hospitals, given their tax exempt status. However, existing cross-sectional studies offer little empirical support for the hypothesis. We reexamine this issue using a panel data set and find that higher state corporate income and local property tax rates lead to a greater market share for nonprofit hospit...

Boards of Directors of tax-exempt hospitals are increasingly struggling with whether to convert their facilities to for-profit status. Other than the traditional duties of loyalty and fair dealings imposed upon directors, there is currently little guidance to assure that boards obtain a fair price for the hospital in such conversions. The author provides recommendations to assure proper valuation.

IMPORTANCE Surgical site infections (SSIs) may increase health care costs, but few studies have conducted an analysis from the perspective of hospital administrators. OBJECTIVE To determine the change in hospital profit due to SSIs. DESIGN Retrospective study of data from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2010. SETTING The study was performed at 4 of The Johns Hopkins Health System acute c...