New Report: Race and Ethnicity May Affect Where Hospitals Transfer Patients

A new study in #HSR @WileyHealth examines racial/ethnic differences in emergency department (ED) transfers to public hospitals and factors explaining these differences.

Black transfer patients were more likely to be transferred to public hospitals compared with White patients in most models tested. For instance, Black transfer patients were 0.5–1.3 percentage points (pp) more likely to be transferred to public hospitals than White patients treated in the same hospital with the same payer. In comparison, Hispanic transfer patients were − 0.6 pp to −1.2 pp less likely to be transferred to public hospitals than White patients treated in the same hospital with the same payer.

This study suggests large population-level differences in whether ED patients of different races/ethnicities were transferred to public hospitals were largely explained by hospital market and the initial hospital, suggesting that these factors may play a larger role in explaining differences in transfer to public hospitals, compared with other external factors.

The study authors include Charleen Hsuan JD PhDDavid J. Vanness PhDAlexis Zebrowski PhDBrendan G. Carr MDEdward C. Norton PhDDavid G. Buckler MSYinan Wang MPPDouglas L. Leslie PhDEleanor F. Dunham MD, MBA, and Jeannette A. Rogowski PhD.

Find more details about the article here.