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To examine whether hospitals with high volumes of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) provide better or more-efficient care than hospitals with lower volumes, investigators used the Medicare Provider Analysis Review file to analyze records of 1,029,497 patients discharged with a primary diagnosis of CHF from 4095 hospitals during 2006 and 2007. Based on total number of discharges during the 23-month study period, hospitals were characterized as low volume (25–200 CHF discharges), medium volume (201–400 discharges) and high volume (>400 discharges).
Most low-volume hospitals were small; only 16% had cardiac intensive care units, and 2% were major teaching hospitals. Most high-volume hospitals were medium or large, and 69% had cardiac…