Comment by john-h-k
13 hours ago
Your citation's statistics [1] actually says the exact opposite of your claim!
It shows a -0.2pp DECREASE in in-hospital mortality, with no significant change on 7 or 30 day mortality. The authors suggest this could be due to:
* selecting for healthier patients - the paper shows an average change of 0.1 years younger for patients. this is not significant!
* transferring out sicker patients - 30 day mortality would show this (it doesn't), and the transfer rate does not change meaningfully
So based on the evidence you have provided, private equity purchasing hospitals saves lives. Maybe that is wrong, but it is the conclusion of that evidence.
They also don't claim PE is killing people in the conclusion; did you read the paper?
The age difference was significant
They've had more bloodstream infections, surgical infections, and falls. Everything which traces back to staff cuts and lack of hygiene.
Also they dumped the complicated, and probably expensive cases to real hospitals In contrast, transfers to other acute care hospitals increased 12.2% at private equity hospitals compared with control hospitals
A 1 month average age difference is not medically significant.
They had more bloodstream infections yep. Surgical infections was NOT statistically significant. And again, mortality went down!!
The “dumping cases” thing is incredibly suspicious. So they’re so motivated by money that they … don’t keep patients who would spend a lot? On top of that, the 30 day mortality doesn’t show an increase, which is what you’d see if they dumped deaths onto other hospitals.