Welcome to Apple Slices!
By Melissa Wong, MD, and the 2018-2020 APGO Technology Committee
Welcome to Apple Slices, a bite-size educational research update brought to you by the APGO Technology Committee. Our goal is to provide you with brief summaries and reviews of recently published educational research from both within and especially outside the traditional obstetrics and gynecology journals.
Association Between Teaching Status and Mortality in US Hospitals
Read the full article here
The authors’ key question was whether there was a difference in 30-day mortality rates at US teaching hospitals compared to non-teaching hospitals, honing in further to ask whether it varied by condition treated or by hospital volume.
To answer this, they reviewed data from Medicare beneficiaries from 2012-2014 focusing on the 15 most common medical causes for hospitalization and 6 common surgical procedures. They also looked at resident:bed ratio as a marker for “teaching intensity.”
Admission to a major teaching hospital was associated with a lower overall 30-day mortality. This persisted even when adjusting for condition, surgery, hospital characteristics, and volume. And the degree of “teaching intensity” also positively correlated with a reduction in mortality.
Apple Slice: That 4 am wake-up by the pre-rounding medical student? You’re welcome. It may have just saved your life.