Relationship of hospital teaching status with quality of care and mortality for Medicare patients with acute MI.

Abstract

Issues of cost and quality have increased importance in the delivery of medical care,¹ and all hospitals, especially teaching hospitals, must reassess their mission and strategy for survival.² Teaching hospitals may provide care that is of higher quality but more costly when compared with nonteaching hospitals.^3-10 Rosenthal et al¹¹ suggest that much of the increased cost attributed to academic medical centers stems from such societal functions as providing medical education, conducting research, and caring for indigent patients. Some authors speculate that the academic medical institution as it is known today cannot survive,^12-15 and academic medical centers are responding to this challenge by developing new strategies for maintaining their "core mission."¹⁶