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Essay
COVID Could Surge Anywhere. This Tool Helps Hospitals Prepare
The number of new coronavirus cases is growing in most states. As the pandemic continues to strain U.S. health care systems, a tool developed by RAND researchers can help hospitals prepare for the worst.
Jul 1, 2020
Report
Setting U.S. Hospital Prices Could Cut Overall Health Spending by Billions
Price regulations face political obstacles and have been strongly opposed by medical providers. But setting prices for all commercial health care payers could reduce hospital spending by $61.9 billion to $236.6 billion a year if the rates were set at 100 to 150 percent of the amounts paid by Medicare.
Feb 18, 2021

Explore Hospitals

Journal Article
Vertical Integration of General Practices with Acute Hospitals in England: Rapid Impact Evaluation
This study drew on previous research into NHS hospitals taking over running general practices, and evaluated whether hospital-run practices affect patient satisfaction and attendance, including for patients with long-term conditions.
Nov 2, 2023
Journal Article
Changes in Patient Experiences of Hospital Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Did patient hospital experiences change during the COVID-19 pandemic and, if so, did the changes differ across hospitals with different patient-staff ratios and prepandemic quality (hospital overall star rating)?
Sep 5, 2023
News Release
Patient Experiences with Hospitals Significantly Worsened During First Two Years of Pandemic
The experiences of patients hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic were significantly worse than in the years before the crisis, with hospitals with higher staffing levels holding onto better scores longer.
Aug 25, 2023
Journal Article
Improving the Quality of Written Discharge Instructions: A Multisite Collaborative Project
Participation in this 8-hospital Institute for Healthcare Improvement Virtual Breakthrough Series collaborative was associated with improvement in the quality of written discharge instructions beyond precollaborative trends only for hospitals with high baseline performance.
Aug 16, 2023
Report
Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorder Bed Capacity, Need, and Shortage Estimates in Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County sought to understand where gaps exist between psychiatric and substance use disorder treatment bed capacity and needs — at different levels of care. The authors use various sources to identify such gaps and hard-to-place populations.
Aug 3, 2023
Journal Article
Changes in US Hospital Financial Performance During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
COVID-19 led to significant hospital operational changes, impacting financial performance. 80% of 4,223 U.S. hospitals received emergency funds, with 16.3% experiencing financial distress (46.3% excluding relief funds). Hospitals with more Hispanic patients faced higher distress.
Jul 21, 2023
Report
Improving Mental Health Care Systems in the United States: Policy Questions Arising from a Case Study of Sheppard Pratt
The authors interviewed senior staff at Sheppard Pratt, a community-based mental health specialty care system in Maryland and West Virginia, to understand how Sheppard Pratt's experiences can potentially inform national mental health policy.
Jul 12, 2023
Journal Article
What's Behind Losses At Large Nonprofit Health Systems?
The authors aim to understand the financial performance of large nonprofit hospitals systems in the post-COVID-19 era by examining several of these systems' overall profit margin by using their most recent annual financial reports.
Jun 7, 2023
Journal Article
Association Between Hospital Adoption of an Emergency Department Treatment Pathway for Opioid Use Disorder and Patient Initiation of Buprenorphine After Discharge
Researchers evaluated the association between hospitals attesting to an emergency department buprenorphine treatment Opioid Hospital Quality Improvement Program (O-HQIP) pathway and patients' subsequent initiation of buprenorphine treatment.
Apr 20, 2023
Journal Article
The Hospital Care Experiences of Older Patients Compared to Younger Patients
Patients ages 75+ reported less-positive experiences than patients ages 55-74, especially for measures of communication. These differences may be specific to inpatient care.
Dec 23, 2022
Journal Article
The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Insurance Expansions on Opioid-Related Emergency Department Visits
We leverage ACA coverage expansions to study the impact of health insurance on opioid-related emergency department visits while accounting for potentially confounding changes in relevant state-level policies.
Oct 27, 2022
Report
Health Care Consolidation: What Does the Evidence Say?
Hospital horizontal consolidation is associated with higher prices paid to providers. And there is some evidence of the same for vertical consolidation of hospitals and physician practices. What effect might the No Surprises Act—created to protect consumers from surprise medical bills—have on consolidation trends?
Sep 30, 2022
Journal Article
Higher Medicare Spending On Imaging And Lab Services After Primary Care Physician Group Vertical Integration
This study highlights how the growing trend of vertical integration, combined with differences in Medicare payment between hospitals and nonhospital providers, leads to higher Medicare spending.
Sep 20, 2022
Journal Article
Survey of Hospital Chargemaster Transparency
We compared hospital chargemaster data within a local hospital market where patients would reasonably try to shop or compare services.
Sep 15, 2022
Report
Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorder Bed Capacity, Need, and Shortage Estimates in California: Merced, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus Counties
In California, Merced, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus Counties sought to understand the gap between capacity and need for behavioral health beds. This report estimates bed shortages by triangulating estimates through multiple modeling methodologies.
Aug 26, 2022
Journal Article
Examining the Course of Transitions from Hospital to Home-Based Palliative Care: A Mixed Methods Study
Mixed methods study of transitions from hospital to home for palliative care/hospice.
Jun 1, 2022
Journal Article
Trends In Hospital Prices Paid By Private Health Plans Varied Substantially Across The US
We describe how commercial hospital payment rates changed relative to Medicare rates during 2012–19 and how trends differed by hospital referral region.
Apr 20, 2022
News Release
Trends in Hospital Prices Varied Widely Across the United States
The average prices charged to commercial health plans by hospitals, as compared to what Medicare pays, remained relatively stable between 2012 and 2019, but there was a large amount of geographic variation in the trends.
Apr 4, 2022
Journal Article
Cannabis Legalization and Cannabis-Involved Pregnancy Hospitalizations in Colorado
The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the association between presence of recreational cannabis dispensaries and prevalence of cannabis-involved pregnancy hospitalizations in Colorado.
Mar 4, 2022
Journal Article
APCDs Can Provide Important Insights for Surveilling the Opioid Epidemic, With Caveats
We compared Colorado's all-payer claims databases with other state-level databases, using analyses comparing quarterly rates of opioid-involved inpatient and emergency department visits and rates of 30-day opioid fills.
Mar 4, 2022

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Thomas W. Concannon

Senior Policy Researcher

Thomas Concannon is a senior policy researcher at RAND, a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, assistant professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine (2006–present), and Codirector of Stakeholder and Community Engagement at Tufts Clinical and…
Mahshid Abir

Senior Physician Policy Researcher

Mahshid Abir is a senior physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Also a practicing emergency physician, her research evaluates the acute care continuum including pre-hospital, emergency, inpatient, and ambulatory care, with a focus on policy-related issues. Abir's past work includes…

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