Do hospitals provide lower quality of care to black patients for pneumonia?

Abstract

Objectives: Recent studies reported lower quality of care for black vs. white patients with community-acquired pneumonia and suggested that disparities persist at the individual hospital level. We examined racial differences in emergency department and intensive care unit care processes to determine whether differences persist after adjusting for case-mix and variation in care across hospitals. Design: Prospective, observational cohort study. Setting: Twenty-eight U.S. hospitals. Patients: Patients with community-acquired pneumonia: 1738 white and 352 black patients. Interventions: None. Measurements: We compared care quality based on antibiotic receipt within 4 hrs and adherence to American..