SynthesisCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2004
Payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- Governance arrangements for health systems in low-income countries: an overview of systematic reviews.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Quality of care in for-profit and not-for-profit nursing homes: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2009Pooled it
- Contrasting associations between wages and staffing levels of nurses and physicians in Swiss acute care hospitals.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Association of hospital for-profit status with clinical and financial outcomes following emergency general surgery.Surgery open science · 2025Article
- Variation and Drivers of Costs for Emergency Department Visits Among Children in 8 States.Hospital pediatrics · 2024Article
- The relationship between hospital ownership, in-hospital mortality, and medical expenses: an analysis of three common conditions in China.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2023Article
- Optimization of the Use of Hospital Beds as an Example of Improving the Functioning of Hospitals in Poland on the Basis of the Provincial Clinical Hospital No. 1 in Rzeszow.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Effect of profit status in facilities on the mortality of patients on long-term haemodialysis: a nationwide cohort study.BMJ open · 2021Article
- For-Profit Hospitals Have Thrived Because of Generous Public Reimbursement Schemes, Not Greater Efficiency: A Multi-Country Case Study.International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation · 2021Article
- It Is Time to Liberate Hospitals from Profit-Centered Care.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Article
- Private hospital expansion in China: a global perspective.Global health journal (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2018Review
- The impact of adverse events on health care costs for older adults undergoing nonelective abdominal surgery.Canadian journal of surgery. Journal canadien de chirurgie · 2016Article
- Article
- Large regional differences in incidence of arthroscopic meniscal procedures in the public and private sector in Denmark.BMJ open · 2015Article
- Harnessing the privatisation of China's fragmented health-care delivery.Lancet (London, England) · 2014Review
- Review
- The relationship between social capital and quality management systems in European hospitals: a quantitative study.PloS one · 2013Article
- Payments and quality of care in private for-profit and public hospitals in Greece.BMC health services research · 2011Article
- Disparities in postacute rehabilitation care for stroke: an analysis of the state inpatient databases.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation · 2011Article
- Disparities in post-acute rehabilitation care for joint replacement.Arthritis care & research · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
19 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt has been shown that patients cared for at private for-profit hospitals have higher risk-adjusted mortality rates than those cared for at private not-for-profit hospitals. Uncertainty remains, however, about the economic implications of these forms of health care delivery. Since some policy-makers might still consider for-profit health care if expenditure savings were sufficiently large, we undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals.
methodsWe used 6 search strategies to identify published and unpublished observational studies that directly compared the payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals. We masked the study results before teams of 2 reviewers independently evaluated the eligibility of all studies. We confirmed data or obtained additional data from all but 1 author. For each study, we calculated the payments for care at private for-profit hospitals relative to private not-for-profit hospitals and pooled the results using a random effects model.
resultsEight observational studies, involving more than 350 000 patients altogether and a median of 324 hospitals each, fulfilled our eligibility criteria. In 5 of 6 studies showing higher payments for care at private for-profit hospitals, the difference was statistically significant; in 1 of 2 studies showing higher payments for care at private not-for-profit hospitals, the difference was statistically significant. The pooled estimate demonstrated that private for-profit hospitals were associated with higher payments for care (relative payments for care 1.19, 95% confidence interval 1.07-1.33, p = 0.001).
interpretationPrivate for-profit hospitals result in higher payments for care than private not-for-profit hospitals. Evidence strongly supports a policy of not-for-profit health care delivery at the hospital level.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.