Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39422569›Full record

ArticleMedical care2025

Hospital-Level Variation in COVID-19 Treatment Among Hospitalized Adults in the United States: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

G Caleb Alexander, Brian T Garibaldi, Huijun An, Kathleen M Andersen, Matthew L Robinson, Kunbo Wang, Yanxun Xu, Joshua F Betz, Albert W Wu, Arielle Fisher and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Medical care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

G Caleb AlexanderDepartment of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Brian T GaribaldiDivision of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Huijun AnDepartment of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Kathleen M AndersenDepartment of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Matthew L RobinsonDivision of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Kunbo WangDepartment of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Yanxun XuDepartment of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Joshua F BetzDepartment of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Albert W WuDepartment of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Arielle FisherCOVID-19 Consortium of HCA Healthcare and Academia for Research GEneration, Nashville, TN.
Shanna A EgloffCOVID-19 Consortium of HCA Healthcare and Academia for Research GEneration, Nashville, TN.
Kenneth E SandsCOVID-19 Consortium of HCA Healthcare and Academia for Research GEneration, Nashville, TN.
Hemalkumar B MehtaDepartment of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.

Funding

NHLBI Training Program in PharmacoepidemiologyT32HL139426 · NHLBI · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI G. Caleb Alexander, JODI B. SEGAL · 2018 to 2026
$2.5M
Drug-Drug Interactions Involving Direct-Acting Oral Anticoagulants in Nursing Home ResidentsK01AG070329 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI MEHTA, HEMALKUMAR B. · 2021 to 2025
$647k
NHLBI NIH HHS T32 HL139426NIA NIH HHS K01 AG070329
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

STUDY

designRetrospective cohort study.

objectiveTo characterize variation in dexamethasone and remdesivir use over time among hospitals.

backgroundLittle is known about hospital-level variation in COVID-19 drug treatments in a large and diverse network in the United States.

methodsWe selected individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 across 163 hospitals between February 23, 2020 and October 31, 2021 from using the HCA CHARGE, an electronic health record repository from a network of community health care facilities in the United States. We quantified receipt of dexamethasone, remdesivir, and combined use of dexamethasone and remdesivir during the hospital stay. We used 2-level logistic regression models to determine the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) at the hospital level, adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics. The ICC shows the proportion of total variation in drug use accounted for by hospitals.

resultsAmong 161,667 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19, 73.0% were treated with dexamethasone, 49.1% with remdesivir, and 45.0% with both dexamethasone and remdesivir. The proportion of variation in dexamethasone use was 12.7% (adjusted ICC: 0.127), 8.5% for remdesivir, and 11.3% for combined drug use, indicating low interhospital variation. In the fully adjusted models, between-facility variation in dexamethasone use declined from 34.1% in February-March 2020 to 11.3% in January-March 2021 and then increased to 17.3% in July-October 2021. The variation in remdesivir use remained relatively stable during the study period.

conclusionsDuring the first 2 years of the pandemic, there was relatively consistent use of dexamethasone and remdesivir across the hospitals examined. Consistent adoption and implementation of treatment guidelines across the hospitals examined may have led to a decrease in variation in drug usage over time.

Indexed as

Adenosine MonophosphateAlanineAntiviral AgentsCOVID-19 Drug TreatmentDexamethasoneHospitalizationAdultAgedCOVID-19FemaleHospitalsHumansMaleMiddle AgedRetrospective StudiesSARS-CoV-2Adenosine MonophosphateAlanineAntiviral AgentsDexamethasoneremdesivir

Identifiers

PMID39422569
PMCPMC11624058

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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.