Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.

BACKGROUND:Hospital performance is frequently evaluated by analyzing differences between hospital averages in some quality indicators. The results are often expressed as quality charts of hospital variance (e.g., league tables, funnel plots). However, those analyses seldom consider patients heteroge...

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Main Authors: Nermin Ghith, Philippe Wagner, Anne Frølich, Juan Merlo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4739586?pdf=render
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author Nermin Ghith
Philippe Wagner
Anne Frølich
Juan Merlo
author_facet Nermin Ghith
Philippe Wagner
Anne Frølich
Juan Merlo
author_sort Nermin Ghith
collection DOAJ
description BACKGROUND:Hospital performance is frequently evaluated by analyzing differences between hospital averages in some quality indicators. The results are often expressed as quality charts of hospital variance (e.g., league tables, funnel plots). However, those analyses seldom consider patients heterogeneity around averages, which is of fundamental relevance for a correct evaluation. Therefore, we apply an innovative methodology based on measures of components of variance and discriminatory accuracy to analyze 30-day mortality after hospital discharge with a diagnosis of Heart Failure (HF) in Sweden. METHODS:We analyzed 36,943 patients aged 45-80 treated in 565 wards at 71 hospitals during 2007-2009. We applied single and multilevel logistic regression analyses to calculate the odds ratios and the area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUC). We evaluated general hospital and ward effects by quantifying the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and the increment in the AUC obtained by adding random effects in a multilevel regression analysis (MLRA). Finally, the Odds Ratios (ORs) for specific ward and hospital characteristics were interpreted jointly with the proportional change in variance (PCV) and the proportion of ORs in the opposite direction (POOR). FINDINGS:Overall, the average 30-day mortality was 9%. Using only patient information on age and previous hospitalizations for different diseases we obtained an AUC = 0.727. This value was almost unchanged when adding sex, country of birth as well as hospitals and wards levels. Average mortality was higher in small wards and municipal hospitals but the POOR values were 15% and 16% respectively. CONCLUSIONS:Swedish wards and hospitals in general performed homogeneously well, resulting in a low 30-day mortality rate after HF. In our study, knowledge on a patient's previous hospitalizations was the best predictor of 30-day mortality, and this information did not improve by knowing the sex and country of birth of the patient or where the patient was treated.
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spelling doaj.art-2cb1adfd79a04a6c86f7d7cec770a3552022-12-22T01:12:37ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01112e014818710.1371/journal.pone.0148187Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.Nermin GhithPhilippe WagnerAnne FrølichJuan MerloBACKGROUND:Hospital performance is frequently evaluated by analyzing differences between hospital averages in some quality indicators. The results are often expressed as quality charts of hospital variance (e.g., league tables, funnel plots). However, those analyses seldom consider patients heterogeneity around averages, which is of fundamental relevance for a correct evaluation. Therefore, we apply an innovative methodology based on measures of components of variance and discriminatory accuracy to analyze 30-day mortality after hospital discharge with a diagnosis of Heart Failure (HF) in Sweden. METHODS:We analyzed 36,943 patients aged 45-80 treated in 565 wards at 71 hospitals during 2007-2009. We applied single and multilevel logistic regression analyses to calculate the odds ratios and the area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUC). We evaluated general hospital and ward effects by quantifying the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and the increment in the AUC obtained by adding random effects in a multilevel regression analysis (MLRA). Finally, the Odds Ratios (ORs) for specific ward and hospital characteristics were interpreted jointly with the proportional change in variance (PCV) and the proportion of ORs in the opposite direction (POOR). FINDINGS:Overall, the average 30-day mortality was 9%. Using only patient information on age and previous hospitalizations for different diseases we obtained an AUC = 0.727. This value was almost unchanged when adding sex, country of birth as well as hospitals and wards levels. Average mortality was higher in small wards and municipal hospitals but the POOR values were 15% and 16% respectively. CONCLUSIONS:Swedish wards and hospitals in general performed homogeneously well, resulting in a low 30-day mortality rate after HF. In our study, knowledge on a patient's previous hospitalizations was the best predictor of 30-day mortality, and this information did not improve by knowing the sex and country of birth of the patient or where the patient was treated.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4739586?pdf=render
spellingShingle Nermin Ghith
Philippe Wagner
Anne Frølich
Juan Merlo
Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.
PLoS ONE
title Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.
title_full Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.
title_fullStr Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.
title_full_unstemmed Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.
title_short Short Term Survival after Admission for Heart Failure in Sweden: Applying Multilevel Analyses of Discriminatory Accuracy to Evaluate Institutional Performance.
title_sort short term survival after admission for heart failure in sweden applying multilevel analyses of discriminatory accuracy to evaluate institutional performance
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4739586?pdf=render
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AT annefrølich shorttermsurvivalafteradmissionforheartfailureinswedenapplyingmultilevelanalysesofdiscriminatoryaccuracytoevaluateinstitutionalperformance
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