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Charles L. Bennett, MD; Jeffrey B. Garfinkle, MS; Sheldon Greenfield, MD; David Draper, PhD; William Rogers, PhD; W. Christopher Mathews, MD, MSPH; David E. Kanouse, PhD

JAMA. 1989;261(20):2975-2979.

Abstract
There is marked debate by physicians and policymakers regarding the creation of regionalized acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) centers. A central issue is whether outcomes of care, particularly mortality, differ as a function of hospital experience with patients with AIDS. We evaluated the experience of 257 patients with AIDS and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia treated at 15 California hospitals between October 1986 and October 1987. An overall 15.2% in-hospital mortality rate was observed. However, a markedly lower in-hospital mortality rate was observed in the group of patients treated at hospitals that had a high level of experience with patients with AIDS (30 human immunodeficiency virus-related discharges per 10 000 hospital discharges) relative to the group treated at hospitals with less experience (<30 human immunodeficiency virus-related discharges per 10 000 hospital discharges): 12% vs 33%. Other factors significantly associated with in-hospital mortality included intensive care unit use, admission from an emergency department or through an interhospital transfer, and a history of hospitalizations. A logistic regression model indicated that, after controlling for severity indicators, AIDS experience remained significantly related to mortality. Our findings suggest that policymakers should consider three options: creating regional AIDS centers, implementing policies that promote a rapid but carefully monitored increase in experience of low-volume hospitals with human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals, or providing highly focused educational efforts at low—AIDS-experience facilities. Without such policy initiatives, differences in mortality rates like those we have found might persist as cases of AIDS begin to occur in every area of the country.

(JAMA 1989;261:2975-2979)

Author Affiliations
From the RAND/UCLA Center for Health Policy Study and the Department of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine (Dr Bennett); the Department of Medicine, Tufts University and the New England Medical Center, Boston, Mass (Dr Greenfield); the Departments of Economics and Statistics (Drs Draper and Rogers) and Behavioral Sciences (Dr Kanouse), The RAND Corp, Santa Monica, Calif (Mr Garfinkle); and the Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego School of Medicine (Dr Mathews). Dr Bennett is a National Center for Health Services Research postdoctoral fellow at the RAND/UCLA Center for Health Policy Study.

Footnotes
The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the authors and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policies of The RAND Corp or the National Center for Health Services Research.

Reprint requests to The RAND Corporation, 1700 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90406 (Dr Bennett).

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