Conclusions: After adjustment for patient characteristics and hospital volume, the specialty orthopaedic hospitals had better patient outcomes, as measured by Medicare administrative data, than did the general hospitals.

Link  http://www.ejbjs.org/cgi/content/abstract/89/8/1675

Peter Cram, MD, MBA1, Mary S. Vaughan-Sarrazin, PhD2, Brian Wolf, MD3, Jeffrey N. Katz, MD, MS4 and Gary E. Rosenthal, MD2
1 Division of General Medicine, Mail Stop 152; 3E-09, Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City, IA 52246. E-mail address: peter-cram@uiowa.edu
2 Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies for Practice (CRIISP), Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City, IA 52246
3 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242
4 Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, and Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115