American Journal of Medical Quality

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ajmq

Click here for more information

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Weech-Maldonado, R.
Right arrow Articles by Mor, V.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Weech-Maldonado, R.
Right arrow Articles by Mor, V.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
American Journal of Medical Quality, Vol. 21, No. 1, 40-48 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1062860605280643
© 2006 American College of Medical Quality

The Relationship Between Quality of Care and Costs in Nursing Homes

Robert Weech-Maldonado, PhD

Department of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy, University of Florida, PO Box 100195, Gainesville, FL 32610-0195 rweech{at}phhp.ufl.edu

Dennis Shea, PhD

Department of Health Policy and Administration, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Vincent Mor, PhD

Department of Community Health and a faculty associate in the Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of quality of care on costs in nursing homes. The sample consisted of 749 nursing homes in 5 states in 1996. Nursing home cost functionswere estimated using weighted 2-stage least-squares regression analysis. Costs are measured as the facility's total patient care costs. Two outcome measures are used as quality indicators: pressure ulcers worsening and mood decline. Nonmonotonic relationships are observed between quality and costs for nursing homes in the sample. However, the pattern of the relationship is different depending onthe quality indicator. For pressure ulcers, the authors observe an inverted U-shaped curvewith increasing costs at the lower range of quality but decreasing costs associated with higher quality after a threshold. The opposite pattern is observed for mood decline, with a relatively flat curve at the lower range of quality but increasing costs after a threshold.

Key Words: costs • quality • outcomes • nursing homes • long-term care


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?