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JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2003 95(10):700-702; doi:10.1093/jnci/95.10.700
© 2003 by Oxford University Press
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Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 95, No. 10, 700-702, May 21, 2003
© 2003 Oxford University Press

NEWS

The Volume–Outcome Relationship: Busier Hospitals Are Indeed Better, But Why?

Linda Wang

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the late 1970s, Harold Luft, Ph.D., of the University of California at San Francisco, and his colleagues observed that hospitals performing 200 or more surgical procedures a year had 25% to 41% fewer patient deaths than hospitals performing fewer procedures. Their landmark study appeared in the Dec. 20, 1979, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Since then, numerous studies—on procedures ranging from coronary artery bypass surgery to colon cancer surgery—have come to similar conclusions: Hospitals that perform more surgical procedures (i.e., high-volume hospitals) tend to have better outcomes than hospitals that perform fewer such procedures (i.e., low-volume hospitals).

Yet no one can say for sure why. "We need to get behind the volume–outcome relationship," said Diana Petitti, M.D., director of research and evaluation at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. "We need to understand when high-volume hospitals have good outcomes, why, and transfer those practices to low-volume . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Benefits of Busy Hospitals

Unraveling the Phenomenon

Leveling the Playing Field


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