Recent healthcare reform efforts have focused on improving the quality of total joint replacement care while reducing overall costs. The purpose of this study is to determine if higher volume centers have lower costs and better outcomes than lower volume hospitals.
We queried the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Inpatient Charge Data and identified 2702 hospitals that performed a total of 458,259 primary arthroplasty procedures in 2014. Centers were defined as low (performing <100 total joint arthroplasty [TJA] per year) or high volume and mean total hospital-specific charges and inpatient payments were obtained. Patient satisfaction scores as well 30-day risk-adjusted complication and readmission scores were obtained from the multiyear CMS Hospital Compare database.
Of all the hospitals, 1263 (47%) hospitals were classified as low volume and performed 60,895 (12%) TJA cases. Higher volume hospitals had lower mean total hospital-specific charges ($56,323 vs $60,950, P < .001) and mean Medicare inpatient payments ($12,131 vs $13,289, P < .001). Higher volume facilities had a lower complication score (2.96 vs 3.16, P = .015), and a better CMS hospital star rating (3.14 vs 2.89, P < .001). When controlling for hospital geographic and demographic factors, lower volume hospitals are more likely to be in the upper quartile of inpatient Medicare costs (odds ratio 2.127, 95% confidence interval 1.726-2.621, P < .001).
Hospitals that perform <100 TJA cases per year may benefit from adopting the practices of higher volume centers in order to improve quality and reduce costs.