Serious Adverse Events Increased for Patients at Hospitals Owned by Private Equity Firms, Study Shows

Patients receiving care at hospitals owned by private equity firms were more likely to experience hospital-acquired adverse events, including falls, central line–associated bloodstream infections, and surgical site infections, according to a large study by Harvard researchers. The study, published Dec. 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), examined changes in the quality of care and patient outcomes associated with private equity ownership of U.S. hospitals from 2009 to 2019. Researchers compared the rates of 12 serious adverse events associated with more than 600,000 hospitalizations at 51 private equity-acquired hospitals—before and after they were acquired—with more than four million hospitalizations at 259 hospitals not owned by private equity firms, using 100% Medicare Part A claims data....