Negative cost incentives for hospitals and mortality

From a study in Journal of General Internal Medicine:

Results

We examined 12,341 admissions among 79 physicians. After propensity score matching, admission groups were similar with respect to all demographic and clinical characteristics. Admissions of patients receiving care from short length-of-stay physicians were associated with significantly increased risk of 30-day mortality in adjusted (OR 1.43, 95 % CI: 1.11–1.85), propensity score-matched (OR 1.33, 95 % CI: 1.08–1.63), and matched and adjusted analyses (OR 1.36, 95 % CI: 0.98–1.90).

Conclusions

Policies that incentivize short length of stay may lead to worse patient outcomes. The financial benefits of shortening inpatient length of stay should be weighed against the potential harm to patients.