Race for Profits & Patient Welfare

This paper is about how the race for profits can be highly detrimental to patients' welfare, and even significantly increase their mortality risk. The majority (95 percent) of hemodialysis in the United States is provided by private for-profit and private not-for-profit centers, and only five percent is provided by public facilities (Devereaux et al, 2449). This study compared mortality rates at private for-profit and private not-for profit centers. It has been proposed that private for-profit dialysis centers can provide treatment more efficiently than not-for profit centers (Relman and Rennie, 996-996), but some critics believe that for-profit facilities may compromise health care standards to maximize profits, since shareholders expect a 10 percent to 15 percent return on their investment (Nudelman and Andrews, 1057-1059; Woolhandler and Himmelstein, 444-446). A debate continues to rage as to whether private for-profit dialysis centers can really provide the same standard of care patients receive at a private not-for profit dialysis ce

. . .
so that public not-for-profit centers were separated from private not-for-profit centers in their study so it could be included in the present analysis. The results of this very thorough analysis of available data showed that all studies had made adequate adjustments for most of the important factors affecting mortality rates (age, race, cause of renal disease, etc.) while two studies had made over adjustments for staffing levels and skill levels of staff, and only one had obtained data from the patientsÆ charts (Devereaux et al, 2453). In quality assessment, six of the 8 studies showed a significant increase in mortality rates at for-profit facilities compared to the rates at not-for-profit facilities, while one showed a non-significant trend in this direction. One study showed a non-significant trend towards a lower mortality rate in for-profit facilities. Primary meta-analysis showed that four of the studies revealed a higher mortality rate in for-profit dialysis centers. Three of these four studies were highly consistent, with the relative risk of mortality being 1.09 in a private for-profit dialysis center (Devereaux et al, 2453), and in one study it was lightly lower (0.7). This may have been due to the fact that t
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Searches PubMed, P=02 P+004, Pauly Diamond, Medical Association, Woolhandler Himmelstein, Relman Rennie, Chernew Orzol, Nissenson Owen, private for-profit, Journal Medicine, dialysis centers, P+02 Pooling, for-profit dialysis, et al, devereaux et al, private not-for-profit, private for-profit dialysis, for-profit dialysis centers, devereaux et, mortality rates, not-for-profit centers, 8 studies, not-for profit, rates private for-profit, private not-for-profit centers,
Approximate Word count = 1992
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Race for Profits & Patient Welfare