Mortality because of postoperative colon cancer is higher in hospitals with a relatively high percentage of Medicaid patients

According to report in published in the August issue of the “Journal of the American College of Surgeons”, mortality because of postoperative colon cancer is higher in hospitals with a relatively high percentage of Medicaid patients.

Dr. Kim F. Rhoads said that the report emphasizes that this is the potential effect of resource inequality in different institutions on cancer outcomes. He said this report highlights the issues arising as American health-care economies are tightening and pay is based on performance emerges.

She further added that policymakers who are creating these programs need to remain extra vigilant as the financial penalties implicitly levied upon economically disadvantaged institutions may worsen and not improve outcomes.

Dr. Rhoads who is from Stanford University, California, and her colleagues assessed outcomes of patients suffering from colon and rectal cancers at institutions with a high proportion of Medicaid patients when compared with other hospitals.

The investigators found that although various hospitals had comorbidity scores which were similar to patients in other hospitals. And patients who had high number of Medicaid patients had higher probability of death within thirty days and one year after the treatment.

by Jennifer Larson
radRounds.com, Writer
October 15, 2008