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Dr. Davis looks at the healthcare crisis in the inner city from the perspective of a doctor who works on the front line of emergency medical care in the community where he grew up, and as a member of that community who has faced the same challenges as the people he treats every day.

Caesarean section (CS) rates are rising in urban hospitals in Nepal. However, the reasons behind these rising rates are poorly understood. Therefore, this study explores factors contributing to rising CS rates in two urban hospitals as well as strategies to make rational use of CS. This cross-sectional mixed-methods study was conducted in 2021 in two hospitals, one public hospital and one private one in Kathmandu. The quantitative part included a record-based study of 661 births (private hospital = 276 and public hospital = 385) for the fiscal year 2018/19. The qualitative part included semi-structured interviews with 14 health professionals (doctors, nurses & midwives) and five key informants from relevant organisations and four focus group discussions with pregnant women in antenatal clinics in two hospitals. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS v28. Qualitative data were organised through NVivo v12 and thematically analysed. The overall CS rate was high (50.2%). The CS rate in the private hospital was almost double than that in the public hospital (68.5% vs. 37.1%). Previous CS was the leading indication for performing CS. Non-medical indications were maternal request (2.7%) and CS for non-specified reasons (5.7%). The odds of CS were significantly higher in the private hospital; women aged 25 years and above; having four or more antenatal clinic visits; breech presentation; urban residency; high caste; gestational age 37-40 weeks; spontaneous labour and no labour. Robson group 5 (13.9%) was the largest contributor to overall CS rate, followed by group 1 (13.4%), 2 (8.8%), 3 (4.4%) and 6 (2.9%). Similarly, the risk of undergoing CS was high in Robson groups 2, 5, 6, 7 and 9. The qualitative analysis yielded five key themes affecting rising rates: (1) medical factors (repeated CS, complicated referral cases and breech presentation); (2) socio-demographic factors (advanced age mother, precious baby and defensive CS); (3) financial factors (income for private hospitals); (4) non-medical factors (maternal request); and (5) health service-related factors (lack of awareness/midwives/resources, urban centralised health facilities and lack of appropriate policies and protocols). Four main strategies were identified to stem the rise of CS rates: (1) provide adequate resources to support care in labour and birth (midwives/trained staff & birthing centres); (2) raise awareness on risks and benefits mode of childbirth (antenatal education/counselling and public awareness); (3) reform CS policies/protocols; and (4) promote physiological birth. The high CS rate in the private hospital reflects the medicalisation of childbirth, a public health issue which needs to be urgently addressed for the health benefits of both mother and baby. Multiple factors affecting rising CS rates were identified in urban hospitals. This study provides insights into factors affecting the rising CS rate and suggests that multiple strategies are required to stem the rise of CS rates and to make rational use of CS in urban hospitals.

\"This book takes an intimate look at how health care practitioners struggle to live up to their professional and caring ideals on twelve-hour shifts on the hospital floor\"--Provided by publisher.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program has focused attention on ways to reduce thirty-day readmissions and on factors affecting readmission risk. Using inpatient data from an urban teaching hospital, we examined how elements of individual characteristics and neighborhood socioeconomic status influenced the likelihood of readmission under a single fixed organizational and staffing structure. Patients living in high-poverty neighborhoods were 24 percent more likely than others to be readmitted, after demographic characteristics and clinical conditions were adjusted for. Married patients were at significantly reduced risk of readmission, which suggests that they had more social support than unmarried patients. These and previous findings that document socioeconomic disparities in readmission raise the question of whether CMS's readmission measures and associated financial penalties should be adjusted for the effects of factors beyond hospital influence at the individual or neighborhood level, such as poverty and lack of social support. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Background: There is substantial variation in the cost and intensity of care delivered by US hospitals. We assessed how the structure of patient-sharing networks of physicians affiliated with hospitals might contribute to this variation. Methods: We constructed hospital-based professional networks based on patient-sharing ties among 61,461 physicians affiliated with 528 hospitals in 51 hospital referral regions in the US using Medicare data on clinical encounters during 2006. We estimated linear regression models to assess the relationship between measures of hospital network structure and hospital measures of spending and care intensity in the last 2 years of life. Results: The typical physician in an average-sized urban hospital was connected to 187 other doctors for every 100 Medicare patients shared with other doctors. For the average-sized urban hospital an increase of 1 standard deviation (SD) in the median number of connections per physician was associated with a 17.8% increase in total spending, in addition to 17.4% more hospital days, and 23.8% more physician visits (all P < 0.001). In addition, higher \"centrality\" of primary care providers within these hospital networks was associated with 14.7% fewer medical specialist visits (P < 0.001) and lower spending on imaging and tests (-9.2% and -12.9% for 1 SD increase in centrality, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Hospital-based physician network structure has a significant relationship with an institution's care patterns for their patients. Hospitals with doctors who have higher numbers of connections have higher costs and more intensive care, and hospitals with primary care-centered networks have lower costs and care intensity.

Goals: The adoption of telehealth in healthcare delivery has transformed patient treatment options. Urban and rural hospitals are increasingly using telehealth to reach more patients, improve patient engagement, and increase healthcare quality. Hospitals experience the operational benefits of adopting telehealth through improving clinical workflow, increasing efficiency, and improving patient satisfaction. These benefits may have financial implications through increases in patient volume and revenue, and reductions in provider overhead and costs. The overall effect of telehealth adoption on hospital financial performance is currently unknown. This study examines the association of telehealth adoption with the financial performance of rural and urban hospitals. Methods: This study uses retrospective data to examine the differences between urban and rural hospitals and community characteristics, profitability, and telehealth adoption from 2009 to 2019 in the United States. Data were obtained from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and the Information Technology Supplement, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Healthcare Cost Report Information Systems, and the Area Health Resource File. Telehealth adoption status was determined using the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and the Information Technology Supplement Survey. Hospitals were classified into three categories, according to telehealth adoption status: (1) telehealth persistent nonadopters, (2) telehealth persistent adopters, and (3) telehealth switchers. Hospital financial performance was measured using operating margin and total margin. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the variation between the three categories of telehealth adoption status and hospital characteristics, hospital financial performance, and community characteristics. Principal Findings: The study sample of 1,530 hospitals consisted of 56% rural hospitals and 44% urban hospitals. The results reveal disparities in financial performance between rural and urban hospitals. From 2009 to 2019, both rural and urban hospitals, identified as telehealth persistent adopters, exhibited higher operating and total margins compared to telehealth persistent nonadopter hospitals. Hospitals that transitioned from telehealth nonadopters to telehealth adopters, started with operating and total margins that closely aligned with telehealth persistent nonadopters. However, as hospitals adopted telehealth, both operating and total margins followed closely to telehealth persistent adopters. The results indicate that while hospital financial performance is associated with telehealth adoption, inferring causation is beyond the scope of these results. Practical Applications: The telehealth adoption status has unveiled noticeable patterns in hospital financial performance. In both rural and urban settings, hospitals persistently lacking telehealth capacity have the worst financial performance when compared to hospitals that persistently maintained telehealth services or hospitals that adopted telehealth over the study period. Overall, urban hospitals had better financial performance, which is likely associated with higher caseloads and payer mix compared to rural hospitals. Hospitals that adopted telehealth over the study period showed an increase in financial margins similar to hospitals with persistent telehealth adoption. Targeted policies that address the specific financial challenges of hospitals with a history of poor performance could effectively increase telehealth adoption in these settings. Future research should examine whether adoption among hospitals persistently lacking telehealth can influence the quality and accessibility of services, along with associated health outcomes to determine whether more aggressive policy action is warranted.

Music therapy has been shown to be effective for reducing anxiety and pain in people with a serious illness. Few studies have investigated the feasibility of integrating music therapy into general inpatient care of the seriously ill, including the care of diverse, multiethnic patients. This leaves a deficit in knowledge for intervention planning. This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of introducing music therapy for patients on 4 inpatient units in a large urban medical center. Capacitated and incapacitated patients on palliative care, transplantation, medical intensive care, and general medicine units received a single bedside session led by a music therapist. A mixed-methods, pre-post design was used to assess clinical indicators and the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Multiple regression modeling was used to evaluate the effect of music therapy on anxiety, pain, pulse, and respiratory rate. Process evaluation data and qualitative analysis of observational data recorded by the music therapists were used to assess the feasibility of providing music therapy on the units and patients' interest, receptivity, and satisfaction. Music therapy was delivered to 150 patients over a 6-month period. Controlling for gender, age, and session length, regression modeling showed that patients reported reduced anxiety post-session. Music therapy was found to be an accessible and adaptable intervention, with patients expressing high interest, receptivity, and satisfaction. This study found it feasible and effective to introduce bedside music therapy for seriously ill patients in a large urban medical center. Lessons learned and recommendations for future investigation are discussed.

Background: The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) has developed a set of process compliance measures in an attempt to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs). Previous research has been inconclusive on whether compliance with these measures is associated with lower SSI rates. Objectives: To determine whether hospitals with higher levels of compliance with SCIP measures have lower incidence of SSIs and to identify the measures that are most likely to drive this association. Data and Methods: Analysis of linked SCIP compliance rates and SSIs on 295 hospital groups observed annually over the study period 2007–2010. A hospital group comprises all hospitals sharing identical categories for location by state, teaching status, bed size, and urban/rural location. We used a generalized linear model regression with logistic link and binomial family to estimate the association between 3 SCIP measures and SSI rates. Results: Hospital groups with higher compliance rates had significantly lower SSI rates for 2 SCIP measures: antibiotic timing and appropriate antibiotic selection. For a hospital group of median characteristics, a 10% improvement in the measure provision of antibiotic 1 hour before intervention led to a 5.3% decrease in the SSI rates (P<0.05). Rural hospitals had effect sizes several times larger than urban hospitals (P<0.05). A third-core measure, Timely Antibiotic Stop, showed no robust association. Conclusions: This analysis supports a clinically and statistically meaningful relationship between adherence to 2 SCIP measures and SSI rates, supporting the validity of the 2 publicly available healthcare–associated infection metrics.

To better understand the degree to which risk-standardized thirty-day readmission rates may be influenced by social factors, we compared results for hospitals in Missouri under two types of models. The first type of model is currently used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for public reporting of condition-specific hospital readmission rates of Medicare patients. The second type of model is an \"enriched\" version of the first type of model with census tract-level socioeconomic data, such as poverty rate, educational attainment, and housing vacancy rate. We found that the inclusion of these factors had a pronounced effect on calculated hospital readmission rates for patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia. Specifically, the models including socioeconomic data narrowed the range of observed variation in readmission rates for the above conditions, in percentage points, from 6.5 to 1.8, 14.0 to 7.4, and 7.4 to 3.7, respectively. Interestingly, the average readmission rates for the three conditions did not change significantly between the two types of models. The results of our exploratory analysis suggest that further work to characterize and report the effects of socioeconomic factors on standardized readmission measures may assist efforts to improve care quality and deliver more equitable care on the part of hospitals, payers, and other stakeholders. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The purpose of our study was to assess the outcomes and costs of appendectomies performed at rural and urban hospitals. The National Inpatient Sample (2001–2012) was queried for appendectomies at urban and rural hospitals. Outcomes (disease severity, laparoscopy, complications, length of stay (LOS), and cost) were analyzed. Rural patients were more likely to be older, male, white, and have Medicaid or no insurance. Rural hospitals were associated with higher negative appendectomy rates (OR = 1.26,95%CI = 1.18–1.34,p < 0.01), less laparoscopy use (OR = 0.65,95%CI = 0.58–0.72,p < 0.01), and slightly shorter LOS (OR = 0.98,95%CI = 0.97–0.99,p < 0.01). There was no consistent association with perforated appendicitis and no difference in complications or costs after adjusting for hospital volume. Yearly trends showed a significant increase in the cases utilizing laparoscopy each year at rural hospitals. Rural appendectomies are associated with increased negative appendectomy rates and less laparoscopy use with no difference in complications or costs compared to urban hospitals. •Rural patients tend to be male, older, white, and have Medicaid or no insurance.•Low-volume centers perform 72% of rural appendectomies; 0.2% at high-volume centers.•Higher negative appendectomy rates and less laparoscopy use at rural hospitals.•No difference in complications or costs when hospital volume adjusted for.•Significant increase in rural appendectomies utilizing laparoscopy each year.