Exclusive News: Private Equity Ownership Making Care Riskier for Patients. According to a recent research, patients at hospitals acquired by private equity groups faced increased risks when receiving medical care.
Exclusive News: Private Equity Ownership Making Care Riskier for Patients
The comprehensive study examined the rates of 10 major adverse.Events connected to medical treatment at 51 hospitals before. After they were acquired by private equity companies a financing strategy. It was intended to generate profits for investors. It was published on Tuesday in the journal JAMA. The rates of the same issues at 259 hospitals. That were not controlled by private equity companies were then compared by the researchers with those findings.
In recent years, private equity companies have begun purchasing substantial portions of the US healthcare delivery system. These purchases include private physician offices, behavioral health systems, and nursing homes in addition to hospitals.
According to scholarly research, private equity ownership is linked to greater public expenses and a higher death rate for residents of assisted living facilities.
Exclusive News: Private Equity Ownership Making Care Riskier for Patients. The Senate Budget Committee said earlier this month that it will be conducting a bipartisan inquiry. How private equity transactions affect healthcare institutions.
Using data from Medicare claims, researchers examined the results of almost 5 million hospital stays in total. Every hospital in the investigation had data spanning at least three years, according to the researchers.
Numerous complications are labeled as “never events”. Because they are avoidable medical mistakes that ought never to happen during standard care. Examples of these mistakes include leaving a foreign object in the body after surgery. Mismatching a patient’s blood type falls, infections at specific surgical sites or where doctors insert central lines. Blood clots following joint replacement surgeries, and pressure sores.
The study’s authors explained that although there is some evidence of the financial effects. Such as higher billing rates—of hospitals acquired by private equity groups. Less is known about the potential effects this business model may have on patient care.
According to the study patient rates of hospital-acquired problems rose by 25% in hospitals. That were bought by private equity groups.
According to study author Dr. Zirui Song, the rise was caused by a 27% increase in falls. Which often occur on hospital general floors; a 38% increase in central line infections connected to intensive care unit treatment. And a doubling of surgical site infection rates.
Despite hospitals controlled by private equity investing placing around 16% fewer central lines. Ports into major veins surgically implanted in patients who require frequent intravenous medicine, food, or fluids. Central line infections continued to rise.
In an interview with JAMA editors, Song, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Stated “We saw a quite striking and concerning average change in all three so-called layers of the hospital. From the general floors to the ICUs to the operating rooms.”
The results were deemed “stunning” by experts who have been monitoring the effects of private equity ownership in the healthcare industry.
Holding private equity organizations responsible. The Private Equity Stakeholder Project’s director of health care research and advocacy, Eileen O’Grady, stated, “I have to say that the number is even higher than than what I expected.”
Based on what she’s heard from staff members at hospitals that have been acquired by private equity firms, O’Grady said the research makes sense. However, she thinks this is the first study that has been able to quantify patient outcomes, in part because private equity deals are not always transparent.
In what specific way, then, might a private equity firm’s ownership impair patient care? Medicare claims data alone, according to Song, cannot provide an answer to that issue. However, prior research has indicated that staff reductions and the replacement of higher-paid professionals, including physicians and nurses, with lower-paid staff members are frequently associated with these sorts of acquisitions.
“One possible mechanism that has been documented in the private equity context is reduced staffing,” Song stated.
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