Mortality lower at teaching hospitals

Editor's Note

In this study, major teaching hospital status was associated with lower mortality rates for common medical and surgical conditions, compared with nonteaching hospitals.

The analysis of 21.4 million hospitalizations of Medicare patients at 4,483 hospitals (250 major teaching, 894 minor teaching, and 3,339 nonteaching) found that 30-day mortality was:

• 8.3% at major teaching hospitals
• 9.2% at minor teaching hospitals
• 9.5% at nonteaching hospitals.

After stratifying for hospital size, major teaching hospitals still had lower 30-day mortality than nonteaching hospitals of a similar size.

Further studies are needed to understand the reasons for the differences, the authors say. 

This study uses national Medicare data to compare 30-day mortality among patients hospitalized or undergoing surgical procedures in teaching vs nonteaching hospitals between 2012 and 2014.