Disparities in surgical outcomes at safety net hospitals (SNH) — both real and perceived — are the result of a complex series of factors, say three Boston Medical Center surgeons in a paper published in the current JAMA Surgery.
Outcomes at these hospitals are influenced by factors at the individual, organizational, and policy levels, said Ryan Macht, MD, David McAneny, MD, and Gerard Doherty, MD.
At the individual level, risk-adjustment models used to evaluate quality fail to account for numerous factors that can influence outcomes at SNHs.
