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Changes in Quality of Care after Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The hospital industry has consolidated substantially during the past two decades and at an accelerated pace since 2010. Multiple studies have shown that hospital mergers have led to higher prices for commercially insured patients, but research about effects on quality of care is limited. METHODS:Using Medicare claims and Hospital Compare data from 2007 through 2016 on performance on four measures of quality of care (a composite of clinical-process measures, a composite of patient-experience measures, mortality, and the rate of readmission after discharge) and data on hospital mergers and acquisitions occurring from 2009 through 2013, we conducted difference-in-differences analyses comparing changes in the performance of acquired hospitals from the time before acquisition to the time after acquisition with concurrent changes for control hospitals that did not have a change in ownership. RESULTS:The study sample included 246 acquired hospitals and 1986 control hospitals. Being acquired was associated with a modest differential decline in performance on the patient-experience measure (adjusted differential change, -0.17 SD; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.26 to -0.07; P?=?0.002; the change was analogous to a fall from the 50th to the 41st percentile) and no significant differential change in 30-day readmission rates (-0.10 percentage points; 95% CI, -0.53 to 0.34; P?=?0.72) or in 30-day mortality (-0.03 percentage points; 95% CI, -0.20 to 0.14; P?=?0.72). Acquired hospitals had a significant differential improvement in performance on the clinical-process measure (0.22 SD; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.38; P?=?0.03), but this could not be attributed conclusively to a change in ownership because differential improvement occurred before acquisition. CONCLUSIONS:Hospital acquisition by another hospital or hospital system was associated with modestly worse patient experiences and no significant changes in readmission or mortality rates. Effects on process measures of quality were inconclusive. (Funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.).

SUBMITTER: Beaulieu ND

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7080214 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Changes in Quality of Care after Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions.

Beaulieu Nancy D ND Dafny Leemore S LS Landon Bruce E BE Dalton Jesse B JB Kuye Ifedayo I McWilliams J Michael JM

The New England journal of medicine 20200101 1

<h4>Background</h4>The hospital industry has consolidated substantially during the past two decades and at an accelerated pace since 2010. Multiple studies have shown that hospital mergers have led to higher prices for commercially insured patients, but research about effects on quality of care is limited.<h4>Methods</h4>Using Medicare claims and Hospital Compare data from 2007 through 2016 on performance on four measures of quality of care (a composite of clinical-process measures, a composite ...[more]

PMID: 31893515

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Project description:ImportanceRural hospitals are increasingly merging with other hospitals. The associations of hospital mergers with quality of care need further investigation.ObjectivesTo examine changes in quality of care for patients at rural hospitals that merged compared with those that remained independent.Design, setting, and participantsIn this case-control study, mergers at community nonrehabilitation hospitals in Federal Office of Rural Health Policy-eligible zip codes during 2009 to 2016 in 32 states were identified from Irving Levin Associates and the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. Outcomes for inpatient stays for select conditions and elective procedures were derived from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases. Difference-in-differences linear probability models were used to assess premerger to postmerger changes in outcomes for patients discharged from merged vs comparison hospitals that remained independent. Data were analyzed from February to December 2020.ExposuresHospital mergers.Main outcomes and measuresThe main outcome was in-hospital mortality among patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, stroke, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hip fracture, or pneumonia, as well as complications during stays for elective surgeries.ResultsA total of 172 merged hospitals and 266 comparison hospitals were analyzed. After matching, baseline patient characteristics were similar for 303 747 medical stays and 175 970 surgical stays at merged hospitals and 461 092 medical stays and 278 070 surgical stays at comparison hospitals. In-hospital mortality among AMI stays decreased from premerger to postmerger at merged hospitals (9.4% to 5.0%) and comparison hospitals (7.9% to 6.3%). Adjusting for patient, hospital, and community characteristics, the decrease in in-hospital mortality among AMI stays 1 year postmerger was 1.755 (95% CI, -2.825 to -0.685) percentage points greater at merged hospitals than at comparison hospitals (P < .001). This finding held up to 4 years postmerger (DID, -2.039 [95% CI, -3.388 to -0.691] percentage points; P = .003). Greater premerger to postmerger decreases in mortality at merged vs comparison hospitals were also observed at 5 years postmerger among stays for heart failure (DID, -0.756 [95% CI, -1.448 to -0.064] percentage points; P = .03), stroke (DID, -1.667 [95% CI, -3.050 to -0.283] percentage points; P = .02), and pneumonia (DID, -0.862 [95% CI, -1.681 to -0.042] percentage points; P = .04).Conclusions and relevanceThese findings suggest that rural hospital mergers were associated with better mortality outcomes for AMI and several other conditions. This finding is important to enhancing rural health care and reducing urban-rural disparities in quality of care.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Hospital mergers began in the UK in the late 1990s to deal with underperformance. Despite their prevalence, there is a lack of research on how such organizational changes affect the staff morale. This study aims to assess the impact of NHS hospital mergers between financial years 2009/10 and 2011/12 on staff job satisfaction and to identify factors contributing to satisfaction. METHODS: Data on staff job satisfaction were obtained from the annual NHS Staff Survey. A list of mergers was compiled using data provided by the Cooperation and Competition Panel and the Department of Health. Other sources of data included the NHS Hospital Estates and Facilities Statistics, the NHS 'Quarter' publication, official reports from health service regulators, individual hospitals' annual accounts, data from the NHS Information Centre and the NHS Recurrent Revenue Allocations Exposition Book. Only full mergers of acute and mental health hospitals were analyzed. Propensity scores were generated using observable factors likely to affect merger decision to select three comparable hospitals for every constituent hospital in a merger to act as a control group. A difference-in-difference was estimated between baseline (3 years before merger approval) and each subsequent year up to 4 years post-merger, controlling for work environment, drivers of job satisfaction, data year, type of hospital and occupation group. RESULTS: There were nine mergers during the study period. Only job satisfaction scores 1 to 2 years before (0.03 to 0.04 point) and 1 year after merger approval (0.06 point) were higher (P?<?0.01) than baseline. Robustness testing produced consistent findings. Assuming other conditions were equal, an increase in autonomy, staff support, perceived quality and job clarity ratings would increase job satisfaction scores. Higher job satisfaction scores were also associated with being classified as medical, dental, management or administrative staff and working in a mental health trust. CONCLUSION: Hospital mergers have a small, transient positive impact on staff job satisfaction in the year immediately before and after merger approval. Continuous staff support and management of staff expectations throughout a merger may help to increase staff job satisfaction during the challenging period of merger.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Starting in fiscal year 2013, the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) program introduced quality performance-based adjustments of up to 1% to Medicare reimbursements for acute care hospitals. METHODS:We evaluated whether quality improved more in acute care hospitals that were exposed to HVBP than in control hospitals (Critical Access Hospitals, which were not exposed to HVBP). The measures of quality were composite measures of clinical process and patient experience (measured in units of standard deviations, with a value of 1 indicating performance that was 1 standard deviation [SD] above the hospital mean) and 30-day risk-standardized mortality among patients who were admitted to the hospital for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia. The changes in quality measures after the introduction of HVBP were assessed for matched samples of acute care hospitals (the number of hospitals included in the analyses ranged from 1364 for mortality among patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction to 2615 for mortality among patients admitted for pneumonia) and control hospitals (number of hospitals ranged from 31 to 617). Matching was based on preintervention performance with regard to the quality measures. We evaluated performance over the first 4 years of HVBP. RESULTS:Improvements in clinical-process and patient-experience measures were not significantly greater among hospitals exposed to HVBP than among control hospitals, with difference-in-differences estimates of 0.079 SD (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.140 to 0.299) for clinical process and -0.092 SD (95% CI, -0.307 to 0.122) for patient experience. HVBP was not associated with significant reductions in mortality among patients who were admitted for acute myocardial infarction (difference-in-differences estimate, -0.282 percentage points [95% CI, -1.715 to 1.152]) or heart failure (-0.212 percentage points [95% CI, -0.532 to 0.108]), but it was associated with a significant reduction in mortality among patients who were admitted for pneumonia (-0.431 percentage points [95% CI, -0.714 to -0.148]). CONCLUSIONS:In our study, HVBP was not associated with improvements in measures of clinical process or patient experience and was not associated with significant reductions in two of three mortality measures. (Funded by the National Institute on Aging.).

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Changes in Quality of Care after Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions.

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Changes in Quality of Care after Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions.

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