BACKGROUND: The @entity1 Protection and Affordable Care Act supports the establishment of accountable care organizations (ACOs) as care delivery models designed to save costs. The potential for these cost savings has been demonstrated in the primary care and inpatient populations, but not for @entity1 with emergency conditions or @entity130 . METHODS: Our study evaluated adult @entity130 @entity1 transferred to the tertiary care hospitals of a pioneer @entity26894 , comparing those who were transferred from within the @entity26894 to those from outside the @entity26894 in terms of overall cost of hospitalization. Hospital length of stay and number of imaging studies were predetermined secondary outcomes. RESULTS: The study population included 7696 hospitalizations for @entity130 over a 5-year period, 85.1% of which were for @entity1 transferred from outside the @entity26894 . @entity1 transferred from within the @entity26894 had a 7.2% lower overall cost of hospitalization (P = .032). Mean injury severity scores were not significantly different between groups. Differences in mortality, intensive care unit length of stay, and overall hospital length of stay were not significant. However, analysis of radiology studies performed during the hospitalization revealed that @entity1 transferred from within the @entity26894 had, on average, 0.47 fewer advanced imaging studies per hospitalization than did those transferred from outside the @entity26894 (3.55 vs 4.02 studies per hospitalization, P = .003). CONCLUSIONS: Adult @entity130 @entity1 transferred from within an @entity26894 have significantly lower total costs of hospitalization than do those transferred from outside the system, without significant differences in disease burden, hospital length of stay, or mortality.

Cost savings associated with transfer of XXXX @entity1 within an accountable care organization.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['Patients', 'patients', 'Patient'] @entity26894 :: ('CHEBI:48076', 'Chemical') :: ['ACO'] @entity130 :: ('MESH:D014947', 'Disease') :: ['traumatic injuries', 'trauma']
@entity130 :: (MESH:D014947,Disease) :: ['trauma']
