This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Predominately black hospitals confer lower death rates in black patients with HF
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
ORLANDO, Fla. — Black patients with congestive HF who were admitted to a hospital with a higher overall percentage of black patients had lower in-hospital mortality rates, according to data presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Scientific Session.
“The result of my study comes in two parts: One, [African American patients] tend to have better outcomes when admitted for CHF compared to other races, and two, they tend to do even better when admitted to a hospital with higher patient diversity,” Xin Wei, MD, resident at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s West, told Cardiology Today. “The first result, although surprising, can be explained by that maybe African Americans are usually naïve to the correct treatment of heart failure. Once they do get admitted to the hospital and get the right treatment, they tend to respond better. The second result can likely be explained by the fact that hospitals getting higher diversity in patients usually have higher diversity in house staff and that can improve.”
Researchers analyzed discharge data from 29,193 patients from the National Inpatient Sample database who were hospitalized for congestive HF. The cohort included 5,555 black patients (mean age, 63 years; 51% women) and 23,638 patients of other races (mean age, 74 years; 50% women).
Factors that were reviewed include hospitalization cost, in-hospital mortality and length of stay.
The number of patients in the study represented 145,965 nationwide chronic HF admissions in 2014.
After adjustment for age, sex, year of admission and socioeconomic variables, black patients had shorter lengths of stay (OR = 0.921; 95% CI, 0.86-0.98), lower total cost (OR = 0.573; 95% CI, 0.46-0.71) and lower mortality (OR = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.39-0.86). In-hospital mortality rates were even lower for black patients when admitted to a hospital with a higher percentage of black patients (OR – 0.603; 95% CI, 0.375-0.97).
“My next step would be to actually look into whether those racially diverse hospitals are doing anything differently,” Wei said in an interview. – by Darlene Dobkowski
Reference:
Wei X, et al. Abstract 1147-092. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; March 10-12, 2018; Orlando, Fla.
Disclosure: Wei reports no relevant financial disclosures.