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. 2014 Jan 1:51:0046958014545575.
doi: 10.1177/0046958014545575. Print 2014.

Explaining racial/ethnic disparities in use of high-volume hospitals: decision-making complexity and local hospital environments

Karl Kronebusch  1 , Bradford H Gray  2 , Mark Schlesinger  3
Affiliations

Explaining racial/ethnic disparities in use of high-volume hospitals: decision-making complexity and local hospital environments

Karl Kronebusch et al. Inquiry. .

Abstract

Racial/ethnic minorities are less likely to use higher-quality hospitals than whites. We propose that a higher level of information-related complexity in their local hospital environments compounds the effects of discrimination and more limited access to services, contributing to racial/ethnic disparities in hospital use. While minorities live closer than whites to high-volume hospitals, minorities also face greater choice complexity and live in neighborhoods with lower levels of medical experience. Our empirical results reveal that it is generally the overall context associated with proximity, choice complexity, and local experience, rather than differential sensitivity to these factors, that provides a partial explanation of the disparity gap in high-volume hospital use.

Keywords: behavioral economics; disparities; hospital choice; hospital volume and outcomes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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